The Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), India’s premier aircraft design and manufacturing company, has rolled out the 300th HAL ALH Dhruv (Advanced Light Helicopter) from its production hangar. ALH Dhruv is designed, developed and produced by HAL. The light class helicopter first flew on August 30, 1992.
“The evolution from ALH Mark-I to Mark-IV has been phenomenal and is a boost to the indigenous design and development of helicopters,” said Mr R Madhavan, CMD, HAL
“With more ALH getting inducted into the services our focus on customer support is ever increasing. With over 2,80,000 flying hours ALH has proven to be a multirole helicopter for Any Mission, Any Place, Any Time”, said Mr G. V. S. Bhaskar, Chief Executive Officer, Helicopter Complex.
Currently, HAL is producing 73 ALHs contracted for Army (41), Indian Navy (16) and Indian Coast Guard (16). Out of this, 38 ALHs have already been produced and the remaining will be completed by 2022.
HAL also announced the ground run of the first Limited Series Production (LSP) of Light Combat Helicopter-Limited Series Production (LCH-LSP). This project has been taken up by the Company proactively while the order from Services on HAL is in process. The LCH was piloted by Gp Capt (Retd) Hari Krishnan Nair S, Chief Test Pilot and Gp Capt (Retd) C G Narasimha Prasad, Senior Flight Test Engineer of Flight Operations, Rotary Wing.