Following 18 years of hardwork, state-owned DPSU Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd on July 4 received 'restricted' type-certification (for flight operations up to medium-altitudes) from the Brussels-based European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) for the Dhruv ALH twin-engined 5.5-tonne helicopter. Dr D K Sunil, Director (Engineering, R & D) of HAL received the type-certification documentation in the presence of Filip Cornelis, EASA Director for Aviation, Directorate-General Transport & Mobility; Luc Tytgat, Strategy & Safety Management Director of EASA; S K Mishra, Joint Secretary of India’s Ministry of Civil Aviation; and Vikram Dev Dutt from India’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). HAL had begun work for obtaining such type-certification back in July 2005.
The EASA type-certification establishes that: 1) HAL is capable of designing helicopter platforms meeting the stringent European airworthiness certification requirements. 2) HAL-developed manufacturing processes for the Dhruv meet the stringent European airworthiness certification requirements. 3) All the Dhruv ALH-related type-certification documentation prepared by the DGCA over the years has worldwide endorsement from EASA. 4) Civilian variants of the Dhruv ALH will from now on be able to compete on par with its global counterparts worldwide. 5) Domestic rotorcraft operators will from now on be able to obtain hull insurance for the Dhruv ALH civilian variants from commercial insurance companies, which was impossible before.
This now sets the stage for HAL to obtain similar airworthiness type-certification for the civilian variant of the single-engined Light Utility Helicopter (LUH), now being series-produced at the greenfield HAL facility at Tumakuru; and for the Hindustan-228 STOL twin-turboprop commuter aircraft.
