Aerospace Diary

RotorHub 24th August 2017 - 3:54 by  Neelam Mathews  in Delhi  India’s MoD has released an RfI to procure 111 naval utility helicopters (NUH) along with two flight simulators and one maintenance simulator under the ‘strategic partnership’ plan that focuses on ‘Make in India’.  ..More on Shephardmedia

AVIATION INTERNATIONAL NEWS  »  SEPTEMBER 2013 by    NEELAM MATHEWS Despite tough times, India’s Nirma Group took delivery of an AgustaWestland GrandNew light twin outfitted in full VIP configuration. September 4, 2013, 3:10 AM Even as the presence of helicopter  OEM s doubled in India (to 10 from five), double-digit growth in its civil helicopter fleet in the seven years preceding 2011 gave way to negative growth last year when the fleet reduced from 293 to 266. High operational costs, exacerbated by a depreciated rupee that fell 35 percent in the past 40 months, are posing challenges for the industry. “It’s a cumulative result of lack of optimum utilization, safety performance, infrastructure constraints and regulatory issues,” said K. Sridharan, president of the Rotary Wing Society of India ( RWSI ). The cost-related issues of the helicopter industry range from micro to macro even as the  RWSI  has call...

Neelam Mathews Jan 20, 2013 Enjoy!

Neelam Mathews Oct 15, 2012 An Indian Navy Chetak helicopter crashed today at 10am while landing at Naval air station in Goa. The helio was in transit to make a rescheduling stop from Mumbai to Bangalore. All three onboard have died. Our condolences to their families. Goa’s Dabolim airport has been closed, we hear. While a Board of Inquiry to ascertain the cause has been formed, isn’t it time to start looking at what is happening with those machines?   The Indian Navy has released an RFP for 56 Light Utility Helicopters. The bidders have been given a five-month time to submit their bids. Why is the time period been extended? Shouldn’t this be a priority? Or is it the time of the year once again to give HAL a chance to offer a design, for which it will take another few years to implement? Are we waiting for more disasters to happen?

Pix Source-PTI Neelam Mathews Sept 6, 2012 How long will it be before we see more horrific images related to the Cheetah and Chetak helicopters?  Already, around 20 accidents have occured in the past years related to these machines. The reason is familiar- lack of spares in the international market as production of the Lama has closed down! The French Aérospatiale SA 315B Lama , single-engined helicopter that combines the lighter Alouette II airframe with Alouette III components and powerplant was licence built by   HAL in India as the   Cheetah and the   Alouette III   was license built by HAL as the  Chetak. Aerospace Diary learns that with lack of spares in the market for the helicopters, HAL has started to cannabalise parts. Which means there are more AOGs - not helping the dire  situation. Many vendors that supplied parts to Eurocopter during the heydays are no longer around. We hear that the EC blade production line is ope...

Neelam Mathews June 21, 2012 Orlando The Letter of Agreement for 22 Boeing Apache helicopters valued at $1.4 billion is expected to be signed by the end of this year, Aerospace Diary learns. India recently decided to reduce the field of competitors to award the attack helicopters to a single contractor- Boeing. The Russian Mi-28N Night Hunter and a version of the UH-1N Huey were dropped from the competition leaving the Boeing AH-64D Block III as only contender. The Government of India has requested  possibly for 50 T700-GE-701D engines, 12 AN/APG-78 Fire Control Radars, 12 AN/APR-48A Radar Frequency Interferometers, 812 AGM-114L-3 HELLFIRE LONGBOW missiles, 542 AGM-114R-3 HELLFIRE II missiles, 245 STINGER Block I-92H missiles, and 23 Modernized Target Acquisition Designation Sight/Pilot Night Vision Sensors, rockets, training and dummy missiles, 30mm ammunition, transponders, simulators, global positioning system/inertial navigation systems, communication equipment, sp...

EXCLUSIVE Neelam Mathews May 1, 2011, Time: 4:22pm IST With over 24 hours having passed with no news of the helicopter of Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu that went missing over the densely forested hills near Tawang, questions are now being raised on the adequacy of maintenance of the electronic locator transmitter (ELT) of the Pawan Hans helicopter. The ELT gets activated on impact and transmits signals on an international distress signal that can be picked up by satellites. There are monitoring stations all around the world to pick up distress signals including two in India- Bangalore and Lucknow- and in nearby Thailand. The ELT is powered by batteries that can last upto two days. The ALT has to be serviced every month. Given the often lax attitude, the question being raised by some experts not willing to be quoted, now is, were the batteries replaced during maintenance or signed in the roster as serviced without being checked? “This is the third incident in just...