After many hurdles, HAL’s HJT-36 intermediate jet trainer back in air

Bengaluru, Apr 18: After rectifying snags and after being grounded for close to 3 years, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited’s (HAL) has revived its intermediate jet trainer programme to help the training of IAF pilots.

The first flight of heavily modified Hindustan Jet Trainer (HJT)-36 was carried out from HAL Complex in Bengaluru successfully today. the flight has been successful and went without any hitches. Designed for training, the aircraft was grounded in 2016 after facing some issues during spine test flights.

The intermediate jet trainer has been facing the problem with the stall and spin trials which was never resolved and aircraft was declared unfit to be flown by rookie pilots due to which Government of India and IAF had stopped further funding for the program, a few years back.

HAL was suggested to fix issues with HJT-36 with internal funds of the company or scrap the programme altogether. IAF In the absence of an intermediate jet trainer at Stage-II of Pilot training program had to rely on British Hawk 132 and Pilatus PC-7 Turbo Trainer due to the retirement of the Kiran Mk-II, which HJT-36 was supposed to replace. IAF has assured HAL that if HJT-36 clears all pending trials then it will be reconsidered for Pilot training program.