Indian Air Force To Flight Test Indigenous HTT-40 Trainer Soon

The Indian Air Force is eyeing to officially demonstrate the trial flight of its indigenous basic trainer aircraft HTT-40 in the next few days.

The formal test flight could take place sometime later this month or in early July, the Hindu quoted  sources in the Ministry of Defense as saying Sunday.

Ever since the BTA's first prototype made its first 30-minute test sortie on May 31, it has been frequently airborne as part of the developmental exercise, the sources said.

The outcome of the early trial flights has been encouraging, they said.

HTT-40 (Hindustan Turbo Trainer), powered by a Honeywell engine, is being developed as the first level trainer for fresher pilots of the Air Force at the Aircraft Research & Development Centre of the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.

Although the small BTA would not count as a flagship of the HAL which has designs on bigger planes, internally the progress of the locally designed and developed trainer is seen as a morale booster.

When it gets its flight certification, as many as 68 of the trainers are set to be part of the IAF's I81 basic trainers.

The 113 imported Swiss-made Pilatus PC-7 MkII aircraft will be the other pilot training component.