By Vaibhav Agrawal
‘HANSA-NG’, India’s first indigenous flying trainer, completed the sea-level trials from February 19 to March 5 at Puducherry. The aircraft has been designed and developed by CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories.
In a release on Saturday, NAL said that on February 19, at a cruising speed of 155 km/hr, the aircraft was flown to Puducherry, covering a distance of 140 nautical miles in 1.5 hours.
The objective of these trials was to evaluate structural performance, including positive and negative G, climb/cruise performance, handling qualities, baulked landing, power plant and other systems performance at sea level.
According to the release, after completing 18 hours flying in Puducherry, the aircraft was ferried back to Bengaluru on March 5, and all the objectives of the sea-level trials were met by the aeroplane.
The flight was monitored by NAL designers and Wing Commander Reeju Chakraborty as Flight Test Director from telemetry; Wg Cdr piloted the aircraft. Dilip Reddy and Wing Commander K V Prakash of Aircraft and Systems Testing Establishment (ASTE).
According to NAL, HANSA-NG is one of the most advanced flying trainers powered by Rotax Digital Control Engine with unique features like Just-In-Time Prepreg (JIPREG) Composite Lightweight Airframe, glass cockpit, bubble canopy with wide panoramic view, electrically operated flaps, etc.
The main objective behind the aircraft is to meet the Indian flying club’s needs, while due to its low cost and low fuel consumption, it is an ideal aircraft for Commercial Pilot Licensing (CPL). The release also added that more than 80 Letters of Intent (LoI) from various flying clubs had been received by NAL already.
