BENGALURU: The HAL-designed and developed Light Utility Helicopter (LUH), has successfully demonstrated high altitude capability in extreme weather conditions in the Himalayas. The trials were carried out by test pilots from HAL, Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Army from August 24 to September 2.
“The LUH has complied with all the requirements of users and with the completion of hot and high altitude testing, it is close to operational clearance certification,” said HAL chairman and managing director R Madhavan.
All planned tests were successfully carried out, an HAL release said. A comprehensive test plan was executed at Leh (at an altitude of 3,300m) in temperatures up to International Standard Atmosphere (ISA) 32 degrees Celsius, 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 Advanced Landing Ground (ALG) at 5,000m, followed by another forward helipad (5,500m at ISA 27 degrees Celsius). While these extreme weather conditions restrict all other civil and military aircrafts, an LUH flies unhindered as it is designed for such operations, HAL said.
The helicopter embarked on a 3,000 km 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.
The composite trials team included designers, flight test crew of HAL, the Indian Air Force and Indian Army. Representatives from the Centre for Military Airworthiness and Certification (CEMILAC) and the Office of Regional Director Aeronautical Quality Assurance (ORDAQA) witnessed the trials for military and civil certification respectively.
The flights were completed by an HAL flight test team led by Wg Cdr (Retd) Unni Pillai, Chief Test Pilot (Rotary Wing) 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 Indian Air Force Gp Capt R Dubey, and Lt Col R Grewal from the Indian Army.The LUH completed hot weather trials in Nagpur in 2018, cold weather trials in Leh in 2019, sea level trials in Chennai in 2018 and in Puducherry in 2019.