Bangalore: On Friday, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) was all geared up for the Golden Jubilee Celebrations of one of their greatest contributions to Indian Aviation, HF-24 (Marut), but the organisation has fallen short of acknowledging their own work, as the fighter aircraft has not been featured on their own website.
Air Vice Marshal (Retd) Shashi Kumar Samuel Ramdas said that one of India's first indigenously developed aircraft, HF-24, was not even featured in the Indian Air Force (IAF) calendar which featured other aircraft, including the latest Sukhoi-30.
"Marut is a forgotten aircraft of IAF. It entered service without much fanfare, and was given a premature funeral," he said.
Questioning why the aircraft, that could had made so much headway for aviation in the country, was phased out after 16 years of service, he sought to know the answers for this 'painful' decision.
"The Marut has been a much maligned aircraft, without exception, by those who have neither flown it or maintained it," he said but added that for those who had been part of the project, it was a "love affair".
Sharing the time frame of the Marut from inception to culmination, he said that the idea was born in 1956 and five years later, the first prototype flew and a few years later the aircraft was inducted into service, he said.
Taking a dig at the ongoing Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), Ramdas said: "One is tempted to draw a comparison with this progress and the LCA project." Sharing the flight safety record of the aircraft, he said that despite all technical problems, it had the lowest number of accidents. "Not a single Marut was lost in air combat," he pointed out.
He said that the aircraft was withdrawn from service in 1983. "Some of the aircraft had not even clocked 10-12 hours on the log," he said and added, "one aircraft had logged only three hours. Only a very rich country like ours could afford such a colossal waste."
He also said that the British offered to help revive the Marut for a measly 3 million pounds (Rs 4 crore at the time). "Think of what this investment would have done for the aircraft," he said. The HF-24 was in service only for 16 years and the first flight of this aircraft, was on June 17, 1961.
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