HALL HF-24 Marut

The HALL HF-24 Marut (god of the storm) is a Military aircraft designed by the India with the beginning of the year 1960. It is the first Jet developed by this country and he suffered during all his career from the lack from power from his engines. In spite of that, Marut rather was successful: robust, very manoeuvrable, its stability made of it a good gun platform and it had a great power of fire.

Design

In the middle of the years 1950, the Indian air force emits a request for a plane multirôle: at the same time interceptor with high-altitude and attacks on the ground at low altitude, being able to be used for the drive and modified for the use on board Porte-avions. The whole with a speed of Mach 2, a ceiling of 18.000m and an operating range of 800 km.

If this request were in conformity with the possibilities of the time (they correspond more or less to the characteristics of the Mirage III French or the F-4 Phantom II American, all the two contemporaries in Marut), the difficulty came owing to the fact that the new plane was to be developed locally in India, which did not have whereas little experiment in the aeronautical field and even less in the military jets. Responsible for the project, the company Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. did not have besides at the beginning any infrastructure: no the hangar, not of machine tool for the assembly, any equipment of measurement and test, and not of suitable landing strip.

In August 1956, officially invited by the India, the German engineer Kurt Tank (father of the Focke-Wulf FW 190 of the Second world war) arrives at Bangalore to supervise the team of engineers of in charge of the project. At the beginning of 1959, a model out of wooden on real scale is finished. Able to fly like a Sailplane, it undergoes 78 trial flights between April 1959 and March 1960. The construction of the prototype first of the HF-24 starts at once afterwards and finishes one year later, in March 1961. After three months of ground tests, this prototype (HF-001) made its inaugural flight on June 17th, 1961 and is joined by a second prototype as from October 1962.

However, the program of the HF-24 is already penalized by problems of engine: the plane was to be equipped with Bristol-board-Siddeley Orpheus BOr 12 offering 3 705 kg/p with Afterburning, but the the United Kingdom had stopped the development of this engine and the India did not want to finance remaining work. Several replacement solutions are studied (construction under license of Tumansky RD-9F of MIG-19, collaboration with the development of E-300 launched by the Egypt) but any succeeded, with the result that Marut remains propelled by of Orpheus Mk.703 without Postcombustion providing 2 200 kg/p (either hardly 60% of the power envisaged).

18 specimens of pre-production are ordered at the end of 1962: the first of them takes off in April 1963, and Marut then starts a programme of validation of its use and tests of armaments, which will last 3 years. In spite of its reserves in front of the limited performances of the HF-24, the Indian air force finally decides to use the plane only for the attack on the ground, which involves the suppression of a certain number of useless equipment (radar of continuation, capacity of shooting of air-to-air missile, etc). After these modifications, the first production aircraft takes off finally in November 1967.

The prototype of a two-seater version intended for the drive makes its first flight on April 30th, 1970: the system of rockets is then removed to allow the installation of the second cockpit. This version will be brought into service in 1975 and will be built with 18 specimens. In 1971 a version improved of Marut appears, with a new wing of more important surface, a cockpit largely re-examined and a new sight. During the years 1970, new attempts are made to find engines sufficiently powerful, with the local development of a Postcombustion on Orpheus 703 and of the negotiations for the use of engines Rolls-Royce RB.153, but none will succeed.

Built on the whole with 147 specimens, Marut will equip 3 squadrons with the Indian air force: Squadron 10 as from 1967, Squadron 220 as from 1969 and Squadron 31 as from 1974. It will be gradually replaced by MIG-23 of origin Soviet as from 1980, the last specimens of Squadron 31 being reformed in the middle of the years 1990.

Alternatives

HF-24 Mk I: single-seat attack aircraft version on the ground
HF-24 Mk IT: two-seater version for the drive

Engagements

Marut carried out missions of attack at the time of the third war indo-Pakistani, in December 1971. During this conflict, 3 planes were cut down by anti-aircraft shootings and another destroyed on the ground at the time of a Pakistani raid.

See too

External bonds

History of Marut, design of Marut and Marut with the combat on the site of Indian military industry
Marut on GlobalSecurity.org

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