India's indigenous Light Utility Helicopter clears high weather tests at Himalayas

The LUH completed hot weather trials at Nagpur in 2018, cold weather trials at Leh in 2019,  sea level trials at Chennai in 2018 and at Puducherry in 2019.
The Light Utility Helicopter. (Photo| HAL)
The Light Utility Helicopter. (Photo| HAL)

NEW DELHI: India's own Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) has completed important hot weather and high altitude tests in the Himalayas towards Ladakh. The trials were carried out by the test pilots from HAL, IAF and the Army from August 24 to September 2, 2019.

Speaking on the development, R Madhavan, CMD, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited said, “The LUH has complied with all the requirements of the users and with the completion of hot and high altitude testing, it is close to operational clearance certification".

The LUH is designed and developed by Hindustan Aeronautical Limited.

A comprehensive test plan was executed at Leh (3300m) in temperatures upto International Standard Atmosphere (ISA) +32 degree C which included envelope expansion, performance and flying qualities. 

The LUH then lifted off from Leh and demonstrated its hot and high hover performance at Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO) Advanced Landing Ground (ALG) at 5000m followed by another forward helipad (5500m at ISA +27degree C). 

While these extreme weather conditions imposed flight restrictions on all other civil and military aircraft, LUH flights were unhindered as it is designed for such operations.

In order to carry out tests, the helicopter embarked on a 3000km flight from Bengaluru to Leh over a period of three days traversing many civil and military airfields. During the course of ferrying and trials at high altitude, the chopper revealed high reliability without any service support, said HAL in its official release.

The composite trials team included designers, flight test crew of HAL, the Indian Air Force and Indian Army.  Representatives of CEMILAC and ORDAQA witnessed the trials for military and civil certification requirements respectively.

The flights were completed by a HAL flight test team led by Wg Cdr (Retd) Unni Pillai, CTP(RW) and accompanied by Wg Cdr (Retd) Anil Bhambani, Gp Capt (Retd) Pupinder Singh, Gp Capt V Panwar, Wg Cdr A Jena, a representative from the Air Force Gp Capt R Dubey and Lt Col R Grewal from the Indian Army.
 
The LUH completed hot weather trials at Nagpur in 2018, cold weather trials at Leh in 2019,  sea level trials at Chennai in 2018 and at Puducherry in 2019.

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