HAL's Intermediate Jet Trainer completes six-turn spins: All you need to know about aircraft

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited’s Intermediate Jet Trainer completed a significant milestone on Thursday when it demonstrated the capability to carry out six turn spins to the left-hand and right-hand sides.HAL's Director {Engineering and R&D}, Arup Chatterjee said that by demonstrating its capability to have six turn spins on both sides the IJT has achieved a major milestone. He hoped that with the completion of spin certification of HTT-40 and the progress achieved in IJT, HAL will soon have state-of-the-art trainers for stage I and II training of IAF pilots.We explain what makes this so special and everything else you would like to know about the intermediate jet trainer aircraft.

• The Intermediate Jet Trainer, designed and developed by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, was conceived to provide stage II training of IAF pilots.
• The IJT programme in its modern avatar was given the go-ahead in 1999, and the first prototype took to the skies in less than four years. It will replace the ageing Kirans of the IAF fleet.
• It is a conventional jet trainer with low swept wings, a tandem cockpit and small air intakes for the engine on either side of its fuselage.
• The IJT’s roles include pilot training; general flying; navigation formation flying; instrument and cloud flying; basic air to ground and air to air weapon aiming; tactical flying; and night flying.
• The testing of HAL’s IJT came to a temporary halt in 2016 when during a course of spin testing, the aircraft departed from the controlled flight.
• HAL then made major modifications to the aircraft such as shifting the vertical tail aft on the airframe and increasing the rudder area. It also saw the addition of the new Anti-Spin Parachute system {ASPS}, which is mandated for the safety of the aircraft and test crew during spin flight testing.
• Flight testing of the IJT resumed in April 2019 and stall and spin testing of the IJT in its new modified configuration began in November 2020.

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