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HINDUSTAN AERONAUTICS LIMITED The Company which had its origin as Hindustan Aircraft Limited was incorporated on Dec 23, 1940 at Bangalore by Shri Walchand Hirachand, in association with the then Government of Mysore, with the aim of manufacturing aircraft in India. In March 1941, the Government of India became one of the shareholders in the Company and subsequently took over its management in 1942. In collaboration with the Inter Continental Aircraft Company of USA, the Company commenced its business of manufacturing Harlow Trainer, Curtiss Hawk Fighter and Vultee Bomber Aircraft. In January 1951, Hindustan Aircraft Limited was placed under the administrative control of the Ministry of Defence, Government of India. In August 1963, Aeronautics India Limited (AIL) was incorporated as a Company wholly owned by the Government of India to manufacture MiG-21 aircraft under licence. Factories were set up at Nasik (Maharashtra) and Koraput (Odisha). In June 1964, the Aircra

MAINTENANCE COMMAND Maintenance Command was formed at Kanpur on January 26, 1955, with Air Vice Marshal Harjinder Singh MBE PVSM as its first Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief. Kanpur was the hub centre of maintenance activities even before independence. The only Base Repair Depot - BRD of the Indian Air Force existed at Kanpur, along with a Repair and Manufacturing Depot - RMD. A unit called Aircraft Manufacturing Depot - AMD, was subsequently added to undertake manufacture of the AVRO aircraft. In the perspective of the industrial revolution in India, when the role of IAF was more clearly defined, the AMD was transferred to Hindustan Aeronautics Limited - HAL. This division of HAL is today known as Transport Aircraft Division, or HAL(TAD) and is based at Chakeri, Kanpur. Its insignia has a micrometre screw gauge with an eagle in the centre in a circle which is topped by India’s national emblem. Its motto in Sanskrit  ‘Sarvada Gagane Charetu’ meaning  ‘Always Flying

AIRCRAFT AND SYSTEMS TESTING ESTABLISHMENT In 1972, Aircraft and Systems Testing Establishment (ASTE) first started training pilots of the Indian Air Force for production testing. Three years later, senior ASTE officers visited ETPS and studied its training methods. These were eventually used to start a course for experimental test flying in 1976. The IAF Test Pilots School, co-located with ASTE at Bangalore, conducts Experimental Flight Test Course (11 months ) for Test Pilots (TP) and Flight Test Engineers (FTE) from the Air Force, Naval Aviation and Army Aviation. The school is one among the eight recognized test pilots school in the world to impart flight test training. There are two streams for training - Rotary Wing and Fixed Wing. Hence, there are four entry streams - RW TP, RW FTE, FW TP and FW FTE. The FTEs have two sub-streams - FTE and FTE (Avionics). Occasionally, under a special arrangement, engineers from non-military organisations involved with aviat