"We're proud to say that HAL has made India one of the only six countries that can design, manufacture and maintain combat helicopters", says T Suvarna Raju, Chairman, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, dispelling the age old belief that HAL is just an assembler of components. Backing his statement, Chief Test Pilot of Helicopters, Wing Commander Unni Pillai (retd) says that the indigenously designed & developed combat helicopters are a "quantum jump" over all the existing choppers in the fleet of the Air Force and the Army. Chief Test Pilot of fighter Jets and transport aircraft Air Commodore K A Muthanna (retd) validates the HAL Chairman's words of praise for the indigenously developed light combat aircraft, the Tejas.
