The Defence Ministry-owned public sector undertaking Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) has successfully carried ground tests for making a civilian aircraft.
The ‘ground run’ and the low speed taxi trials (LSTT) of the Hindustan-228 aircraft have been carried out at the HAL facility at Kanpur.
The Hindustan-228 is a 19-seat multirole utility aircraft built on the existing frame of the military plane 'Dornier 228'. The civil version is for various applications such as VIP transport, passenger transport, air ambulance, flight inspection roles, cloud seeding and recreational activities like para jumping, aerial surveillance, photography and cargo applications.
The Hindustan-228 aims for supporting the regional connectivity scheme named “UDAN” of the Government of India. This aircraft could be utilised successfully by civil operators and state Governments for their intra and inter-state connectivity with seamless support towards training, maintenance and logistics.