HAL’s indigenously made Light Utility Helicopter completes high-altitude trials

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited’s (HAL) indigenously-developed Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) completed the hot and high-altitude trials in Ladakh.

The trial was carried out at Daulat Beg Oldie at 3300 meters above mean sea level for about 10 days, the HAL said in a release.

The helicopter demonstrated its payload capability in the high altitude of Siachen glacier. During the trial, pilots landed the helicopter at the highest helipads of Amar and Sonam, it said.

“HAL has once again proved its indigenous capability in design and development. The Army version of LUH is now ready for Initial Operational Clearance,” said R Madhavan, the CMD of HAL.

The 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 the Indian Army. Representatives from certification authority witnessed the trials, it was stated.

The Initial Operational Clearance for basic LUH was accorded by CEMILAC (Centre for Military Airworthiness and Certification) for the IAF variant on February 7 this year during DefExpo 2020 at Lucknow, HAL said. (ANI)