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HAL Shows Rotary-Wing Record-Breaker
Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.’s Cheetal 2.2-ton light helicopter comes to the Paris Air Show, and Europe, for the first time, with at least two distinctions to its credit. HAL claims that it is the only helicopter capable of lifting an underslung load equivalent to its own weight. Earlier this year, it also established a new world helicopter height record by landing in the Himalayas at a pressure altitude of 23,220 feet, equivalent to a density altitude of 25,150 feet.
If its shape looks familiar, it’s because the Cheetal started life as the Sud Aviation/Aerospatiale SA 313 Alouette II or SA 315 Lama, the latter designed from the beginning for high-altitude operation. In this form it is still built under license by HAL as the Cheetah, Lama or Lancer, the last being a light attack variant developed for the Indian army, which received a dozen by 2001. More recently, HAL replaced the original 870-shp Turbomeca Artouste IIIB turboshaft by the more powerful TM333-2M2 engine used in the Dhruv — also at Le Bourget — with modified full-authority digital engine control, and upgraded instrumentation, to produce the Cheetal.
Apart from its high-altitude capabilities, the Cheetal has a cruising range of almost 400 miles at nearly 120 mph. HAL has also built more than 200 bigger SA 316B Alouette IIIs or Chetaks. These are similarly being developed with TM333-2M2 engines, in place of their Artouste IIIBs, as redesignated Chetans. — John Fricker
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