'Hansa' makes successful maiden flight

National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) has said its new generation (NG) aircraft Hansa made its maiden flight on Friday. NAL designed and developed the plane under the aegis of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

The aircraft took off from the airport of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) at 2:09 PM and flew at an altitude of 4,000 feet. Hansa gained a speed of 80 knots before it made a successful landing after about 20 minutes, said a press release from NAL.

Captain Amit Dahiya flew the plane and expressed happiness by saying the flight parameters were found normal and it was a textbook flight, according to the release. The features of Hansa-NG are a glass cockpit with cabin comfort, high efficient digitally controlled engine, electrically operated flaps, long endurance, low acquisition and operating cost.

CSIR-NAL has received 72 letters of intents from various flying clubs and the aircraft would be certified within the next four months before it gets inducted into Service, the release said. The flight was monitored in telemetry by senior officers and scientists and engineers from Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), Centre for Military Airworthiness & Certification (CEMILAC) and CSIR-NAL, the release said.

Dr Shekhar C Mande, Secretary, DSIR, and Director-General, CSIR, congratulated the NAL team. He said the successful flight was a result of the efforts of the CSIR-NAL design team, flight test crew and DGCA with support from Aircraft and Systems Testing Establishment (ASTE). He said CSIR-­NAL has already identified a private partner and series production of Hansa would start soon.