From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru
Bengaluru, Sep 29: Achieving yet another major landmark in its indigenous programme, Defence Public Sector Undertaking HAL rolled out 300th Advanced Light Helicopter (ALH-Dhruv) from its hangar in the city on Tuesday.
R Madhavan, CMD, HAL, said ALH never looked back from the day when the prototype took its maiden flight on August 30, 1992 and has evolved into a world-class helicopter with its unparalleled performance.
“The evolution from ALH Mark-I to Mark-IV has been phenomenal and is a boost to the indigenous design and development of helicopters," he said.
The Roll-out certificate of the 300th helicopter was handed over to G V S Bhaskar, chief executive officer, Helicopter Complex by Y K Sharma, additional director general (south zone), Directorate General of Aeronautical Quality Assurance (DGAQA) at a programme held at HAL’s helicopter division.
Bhaskar said rolling-out of 300th ALH is a testimony to the capabilities HAL has built over the years with concerted efforts of employees and customer support.
“With more ALH getting inducted into the services our focus on customer support is ever increasing. With over 2,80,000 flying hours ALH has proven to be a multirole helicopter for any mission, any place, any time,” he said.
Currently, HAL is producing 73 ALHs contracted for the army (41), Indian Navy (16) and Indian Coast Guard (16). Out of this, 38 ALHs have already been produced and the remaining will be completed by 2022.
LCH ground run:
On this occasion, the ‘ground run’ of the first Limited Series Production (LSP) of Light Combat Helicopter-Limited Series Production (LCH-LSP) was also carried out.
This project has been taken up by the company proactively while the order from services on HAL is in process.
The LCH was piloted by Group Capt (Retd) Hari Krishnan Nair S, chief test pilot and group Capt (Retd) C G Narasimha Prasad, senior flight test engineer of flight operations, Rotary Wing.
S Anbuvelan, executive director, helicopter division, wing commander (Retd) Unni Pillai, executive director (flight operations-Rotary Wing), V Sivasubramanian, general manager, helicopter division and others were present on the occasion.