Manohar Parrikar to witness inaugural flight of HAL's HTT-40

HTT-40 (Hindustan Turbo Trainer-40) is a new basic training aircraft developed by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for the Indian Air Force (IAF). It will replace the ageing fleet of HAL HPT-32 Deepak trainers that are in service with the IAF.

 The aircraft will be primarily used for basic flight training, aerobatics, instrument flying and close-formation flights, whereas its secondary roles will include navigation and night-flying. The HTT-40 project was conceptualised by HAL to fulfil the IAF's requirement of 181 trainer aircraft.  

HAL completed works on ground test air-frame and also produced several air-frame structures for the first aircraft by mid-2015. The aircraft is projected to enter production by 2018. The serial production will start at HAL's Transport Aircraft Division (TAD) at Kanpur.

HAL had already been flight testing the aircraft over the last few days before satisfying itself that all the parameters were perfect before the inaugural flight could take off formally.