BJP MP Tejasvi Surya takes sortie in indigenous HTT-40 trainer aircraft at Aero India 2025

The aircraft, developed by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), was flown by Surya for 30 minutes.

BJP leader and Bengaluru South MP Tejasvi Surya on Thursday took a sortie in the HTT-40, India's homegrown basic trainer aircraft, during the ongoing Aero India 2025 event in Bengaluru.

Following his flight, he praised HAL for its contributions to India's aviation sector.(X/PTI)

The aircraft, developed by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), was flown by Surya for 30 minutes, PTI reported. Following his flight, he praised HAL for its contributions to India's aviation sector, calling it a source of pride for both Bengaluru and the country.

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"Today, I had the opportunity to fly in the HTT-40, an aircraft built by our very own HAL. HAL is the pride of Bengaluru and the pride of India," Surya said according to the news agency. He further described the trainer aircraft as a significant achievement in India's aeronautical advancements.

Highlighting the aircraft’s history, Surya pointed out that the HTT-40 represents an important milestone in India’s push for self-reliance in defense manufacturing. He also criticized the previous UPA government for choosing to procure Pilatus trainer aircraft from a Swiss company in 2012, instead of investing in indigenous alternatives.

The Aero India 2025 event continues to showcase India's growing capabilities in aerospace and defense technology, with the HTT-40 standing out as a symbol of the nation's progress in military aviation.

"This procurement was riddled with questions and in 2019 a CBI inquiry proved that there was an involvement of middleman. Indian companies like HAL were not given prominence and the transaction was opaque. The investigation led to blacklisting of this Swiss company. The entire process led to indigenous trainer aircraft manufacturing project suffer tremendously. The project was almost shelved," he said.

The Bengaluru South MP said that after Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, with the painstaking efforts of the then Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, HAL was given the necessary encouragement, financial support and the administrative encouragement to restart the manufacturing of the indigenous basic trainer jet.

"In a record 40 months HAL and our own engineers produced this HTT 40 which is a state of the art basic trainer jet produced completely in India and in that sense HTT 40 is a symbol of how India has travelled from scandal to self reliance. From foreign dependency to aatmanirbharta (Self reliance), from not trusting our own institutions and our own engineers to manufacturing such state of the art aircrafts that are second to none in the world," he added.

(With PTI inputs)