Taneja Aerospace and Aviation's (TAAL) Rotax 914-F3-powered Hansa-3 ab initio trainer made its maiden test flight on 11 May.
The programme was conceived in 1989 as a joint venture between India's TAAL and Government-owned National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL). TAAL will market and manufacture the aircraft from its Hosur, Bangalore, base, while NAL provides the design and technology. The Hansa-3, billed as India's first indigenously produced composite aircraft, costs around $90,000 and is aimed primarily at the training market .
The Teledyne Continental IO-240B, which powered the first prototype, has been replaced with a turbocharged Rotax 914-F3 to give weight reduction and increased performance, it says. The fixed pitch propeller has been substituted by a variable pitch variant.
Source: Flight International
