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The HAL HJT-36 ''Sitara'' ( Sitārā: "''
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''") is a subsonic intermediate jet
trainer aircraft A trainer is a class of aircraft designed specifically to facilitate flight training of pilots and aircrews. The use of a dedicated trainer aircraft with additional safety features—such as tandem flight controls, forgiving flight characteristi ...
designed and developed by Aircraft Research and Design Centre (ARDC) and built by
Hindustan Aeronautics Limited Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is an Indian state-owned aerospace and defence (military), defence company, headquartered in Bangalore, India. Established on 23 December 1940, HAL is one of the oldest and largest aerospace and defence manuf ...
(HAL) for the
Indian Air Force The Indian Air Force (IAF) is the air arm of the Indian Armed Forces. Its complement of personnel and aircraft assets ranks third amongst the air forces of the world. Its primary mission is to secure Indian airspace and to conduct aerial w ...
and the
Indian Navy The Indian Navy is the maritime branch of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Navy. The Chief of Naval Staff, a four-star admiral, commands the navy. As a blue-water navy, it operates sig ...
. The HJT-36 will replace the HAL HJT-16 ''Kiran'' as the Stage-2 trainer for the two forces. The ''Sitara'' is a conventional jet trainer with low swept wings, tandem cockpit and small air intakes for the engine on either side of its fuselage. It entered limited series production by 2010 but according to the Indian Air Force officials it remained "unfit" for service due to technological issues related to spin test (as of March 2017)., an issue which was only solved in tests in January 2022. In April 2019, ''Sitara'' flew for the first time in three years with a modified air frame to correct its spin characteristics.


Design & development

HAL started design work on an intermediate jet trainer in 1997. The concept was developed as a successor to HAL's earlier trainer, the HJT-16 ''Kiran'', introduced in 1968. In 1999, following reviews by the Indian Air Force, the
Government of India The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...
awarded HAL a contract for the development, testing, and certification of two prototype IJT aircraft. HJT-36 uses light alloys and composites, with a conventional low wing design with 18° leading-edge sweepback and a 9.8m wingspan. It features a hydraulically retractable tricycle-type landing gear. The single-wheeled main units retract inward and the twin nose wheel unit retracts forward. About a quarter of the aircraft's line replaceable units are common between it and the
HAL Tejas The HAL Tejas is an Indian, single engine, delta wing, light multirole fighter designed by the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) in collaboration with Aircraft Research and Design Centre (ARDC) of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for t ...
trainer variant. In the cockpit, the HJT-36 has a conventional tandem two-seat configuration with the trainee pilot forward and the instructor in the raised seat to the rear. The single-piece canopy gives both pilots good, all-round vision. The prototype aircraft used Zvezda K-26LT lightweight zero-zero ejection seats. However, these may be replaced with
Martin-Baker Martin-Baker Aircraft Company Limited is a British manufacturer of ejection seats and safety-related equipment for aviation. The company's origins were originally as an aircraft manufacturer before becoming a pioneer in the field of ejection s ...
Mk.16 IN16S seats, due to a price escalation of the former. The pilots have both conventional and manual flight controls. The trainer has a full glass cockpit with a layout similar to current generation combat aircraft. It uses an integrated digital avionics system from
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. Head-up display and repeater is produced by
Elbit Systems Elbit Systems Ltd. is an Israel-based international defense electronics company engaged in a wide range of programs throughout the world. The company, which includes Elbit Systems and its subsidiaries, operates in the areas of aerospace, land ...
. The aircraft has five external hardpoints for weapons training. There is one center-line hardpoint under the fuselage and two-weapon pylons under each wing for carrying rockets, gun pods, and bombs. The maximum external payload is 1,000 kg. The prototype aircraft was initially powered by a
SNECMA Turbomeca Larzac 04-H-20 The SNECMA Turbomeca Larzac is a military turbofan manufactured by GRTS (Groupement Turbomeca-SNECMA),Gunston 1989, p.172. a consortium between the two French companies, SNECMA and Turbomeca Safran Helicopter Engines, previously known as Turbo ...
non-afterburning
turbofan The turbofan or fanjet is a type of airbreathing jet engine that is widely used in aircraft engine, aircraft propulsion. The word "turbofan" is a portmanteau of "turbine" and "fan": the ''turbo'' portion refers to a gas turbine engine which ac ...
developing 14.12 kN of thrust. All production models will use the more powerful NPO Saturn AL-55I engine with about 16.9 kN of thrust, as stipulated by the 2005 air staff requirements from the Air Force.


Development


2000s

*The first and second prototypes of the HJT-36, labeled PT-1 and PT-2, flew on 7 March 2003 and in March 2004, respectively. The program was then delayed with the Air Force assessing the
SNECMA Turbomeca Larzac The SNECMA Turbomeca Larzac is a military turbofan manufactured by GRTS (Groupement Turbomeca-SNECMA),Gunston 1989, p.172. a consortium between the two French companies, SNECMA and Turbomeca. Its main application was on the Dassault/Dornier Alph ...
engine, with 14.1 kN of thrust, as under-powered. In response, in August 2005, HAL reached a deal to replace the SNECMA engine with the
NPO Saturn UEC NPO Saturn, PJSC (russian: ОДК-Сатурн НПО) is a Russian aircraft engine manufacturer, formed from the mergers of Rybinsk Motors and Lyul'ka-Saturn (after Arkhip Mikhailovich Lyulka) in 2001. Saturn's engines power many former Eas ...
AL-55I with 16.9 kN of thrust. The deal also provided for license-production of the engine in India by HAL. *Further delays were caused by delays in delivery of the NPO Saturn engine by 2 years, as well as due to two accidents in February 2007 and in February 2009 involving each of the prototypes, which grounded the aircraft for repairs and investigations. *The first AL-55I engine was received from
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on 28 December 2008, 2 years later than committed, and was installed on PT-1. Following ground taxiing trials, flight tests with the new engine started on 9 May 2009.


2010

*After further development and extensive testing, the
Indian Air Force The Indian Air Force (IAF) is the air arm of the Indian Armed Forces. Its complement of personnel and aircraft assets ranks third amongst the air forces of the world. Its primary mission is to secure Indian airspace and to conduct aerial w ...
placed an order for 73 aircraft. After over 280 test flights, the aircraft entered limited series production in 2009 for the first 12 aircraft to be delivered to the Air Force. *The first flight test for the limited series aircraft occurred in January 2010, and
initial operational capability Initial operating capability or initial operational capability (IOC) is the state achieved when a capability is available in its minimum usefully deployable form. The term is often used in government or military procurement. The United States D ...
was expected by July 2011. The Air Force order was expected to grow to over 200 aircraft.


2012

*On 27 July 2012, first Engine Ground Run was performed on third prototype.


2013

*In December 2013, HAL declared that Sitara was 'weeks' from certification.


2014

*On 19 February 2014, the Indian MOD submitted a statement that the development of IJT was in the advanced stages of certification, with more than 800 test flights completed so far. The activities were progressing well with completion of sea level trials, night flying trials, high altitude trials as well as weapon and drop tank trials. The activities left for obtaining Final Operational Clearance (FOC) are the refinement of stall characteristics, and spin testing which will be commenced as soon as stall characteristics were refined. All efforts were being made to achieve FOC by December 2014. Production of aircraft was to commence immediately thereafter. However the stall cannot be tested until HAL redesigns the entire aircraft to correct its "inherent asymmetry". *
BAE Systems BAE Systems plc (BAE) is a British multinational arms, security, and aerospace company based in London, England. It is the largest defence contractor in Europe, and ranked the seventh-largest in the world based on applicable 2021 revenues. ...
was consulted on certain design changes, specifically the tail. Afterwards the design was put to mathematical and wind tunnel tests. The modified aircraft was expected to complete the spin tests by September 2015, and the production of 85 aircraft for the Indian Air Force to begin.


2017

*In March 2017,
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reported that due to the HJT-36's "unsolvable" issues associated with critical stall and spin characteristics the aircraft is not ready to serve as an intermediate jet trainer for Indian Air Force pilots.


2019

*With Birhle as a consultant, the air frame was modified to move the tailfin and
tailplane A tailplane, also known as a horizontal stabiliser, is a small lifting surface located on the tail (empennage) behind the main lifting surfaces of a fixed-wing aircraft as well as other non-fixed-wing aircraft such as helicopters and gyroplane ...
further down which is expected to make spin recovery easier. The modified aircraft flew for the first time in April 2019.


2022

*On 6th January, the IJT has successfully demonstrated the capability to carry out six turn spins to both the left and right hand sides.


Specifications (HJT-36, prototypes)


See also


References


External links


HAL Intermediate Jet Trainer HJT-36 by Wg.Cdr Kukke Suresh VrC(Retd.) @ Bharat-rakshak.com


* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20071018112001/http://bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/Images/Current/Trainers/HJT36/ Photos of the two prototypes @ Bharat-rakshak.com
ACIG Exclusive: 15 Photos of two HJT-36 prototypes and its cockpit
{{HAL aircraft Sitara 2000s Indian military trainer aircraft Single-engined jet aircraft Low-wing aircraft Aircraft first flown in 2003