Malaria fund-raising plane reaches Bangalore

The eight-seater GA8-TC Airvan, which took off from Bendigo in Victoria (Australia) on May 8 on a world tour, sponsored by the $6.3-billion Mahindra Group, was flown to Bangalore on Saturday, from Mahe in the Seychelles by Australian pilots Ken Evans, 33, and Tim Pryse, 51, after a 16-hour non-stop cruise over the Indian Ocean.

With 'Millions against Malaria' slogan painted on its airframe, the aircraft is stationed for mandatory checks in the golden jubilee hangar of the state-run National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) adjacent to the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) airport, currently used for test flights of military aircraft.

Propelled by a 320-horsepower Lycoming turbocharged fuel-injected engine, Airvan has a capacity to carry 1,332 litres of aviation turbine fuel to fly around 22 hours non-stop. “On our first lap, we flew from Bendigo over the Pacific Ocean to Arizona in the US, with stop-overs on way at Norfolk island, Pago Pago, Christmas Island, Hilo, Mojave, McNeal, Scottsdale and New Orleans, covering 9,012 nautical miles,” Evans said.

The next port of call for the white-coloured aircraft is Phuket in Thailand, 1,282 nautical miles away. After transit halts at Zamboanga in Philippines, Wewak and Port Morseby in Papua New Guinea.