HAL’s chopper passes Himalayan trials
BENGALURU:
HAL’s indigenously developed Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) demonstrated high altitude capability in hot and high weather conditions in the Himalayas recently for about 10 days. The helicopter took off from Leh and demonstrated its hot and high hover performance at Daulat Beg Oldie, and its payload capability at Siachen glacier. During the trials, the pilots landed the helicopter at the highest helipads of Amar and Sonam.
The army version of the LUH is now ready for Initial Operational Clearance, said R Madhavan, CMD, HAL. According to Arup Chatterjee, Director (Engineering and R&D), HAL, the performance of the helicopter met all user requirement.
The flights were carried out by a team which included pilots from HAL, Wg Cdr (Retd) Unni Pillai, Wg Cdr (Retd) Anil Bhambani, Gp Capt (Retd) Pupinder Singh and Gp Capt V Panwar, along with Gp Capt R Dubey, Sq Ldr Joshi (from Indian Air Force) and Lt Col R Grewal and Lt Col Pawan (from Indian Army).
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