HAL LUH completes Hot and High Altitude Trials in the Himalayas

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Frontier India News Network
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Hindustan Aeronautics Limited’s (HAL) inhouse developed Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) has finished the high altitude capability in Hot and High weather conditions in the Himalayas recently for about 10 days.

“A comprehensive test plan was executed at Leh (3300 MAMSL) in temperatures up to ISA+320C which included envelope expansion, performance and flying qualities.  LUH took off from Leh and demonstrated its hot and high hover performance at Daulat Beg Oldie (DBO) Advanced Landing Ground (ALG) at 5000 MAMSL. The helicopter also demonstrated its payload capability in Siachen Glacier high altitude.  During the trials, pilots landed the helicopter at the highest helipads of Amar and Sonam,” states the HAL release.

According to Arup Chatterjee, Director (Engineering and R&D), HAL, the performance of the helicopter and its systems are satisfactory fulfilling the requirements of the users. All planned tests were successfully demonstrated.

HAL Light Utility Helicopter Cold and High altitude trial
HAL Light Utility Helicopter Cold and High altitude trial

“The Army version of LUH is now ready for Initial Operational Clearance,” said R. Madhavan, CMD, HAL. 

The test flights were carried out by a composite trial team which included pilots from HAL, Wg Cdr (Retd) Unni Pillai, CTP (RW), 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 & Lt Col Pawan (from  Indian Army). Representatives from certification authority witnessed the trials.

The Initial Operational Clearance for basic LUH was accorded by CEMILAC for Indian Air Force variant on February 7, 2020, during DefExpo 2020 at Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh.

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