HTT-40, India’s home-grown trainer aircraft has successfully made its inaugural flight

It was in the esteemed presence of India’s defence minister Mr. Manohat Parrikar that country’s home-grown basic trainer aircraft, called Hindustan Turbo Trainer-40 (HTT-40), made its inaugural flight in Bengaluru.

The two-seater aircraft has been designed and developed by the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, and was flown by Group Captain C Subramaniam and Group Captain Venugopal, who took a 10 to 15 minutes flight at the HAL Airport in Bengaluru.

The craft is aimed at being used for the first stage training for all flying cadets of the three services, and was flown for the first time on May 31.

As per sources, the Indian Air Force will procure 70 such aircrafts.


Detailed design phase of HTT-40, launched in August 2013, was completed in May 2015 because of HAL’s internal funds after which it took another 12 months to fly the first prototype.

As per HAL, the team that worked on HTT-40 programme is "young" and had an average age of 29 when it was started. Pperational clearance is being aimed by 2018, for which the company will be manufacturing three prototypes and two static-test specimens.

The aircraft was tested amidst heavy rains as well, and successfully undertook wet runway landing.

As per HAL officials, HTT-40 can boast of 80% of indigenous content, since more than 75 systems out of the total 90 used in the aircraft have been sourced from local players and sister divisions of HAL.

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