In what is a massive blow to Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd's (HAL) prestige, reputation and, to a smaller extent, finances, the Indian MoD has scrapped the HTT-40 indigenous turboprop trainer programme. My friend Ajai Shukla at
Business Standard reports that HAL has quoted a unit price per aircraft (when ready) that is twice the price of a Pilatus PC-7, 75 of which the Indian Air Force
recently contracted as an emergency measure following the grounding of its fleet of HAL HPT-32 Deepak trainers in July 2009.
Will be following this up more details.