Rolls-Royce and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited Celebrate 50 Years Of Partnership

      One of the longest relationships in aerospace, between Rolls-Royce and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), today celebrated its 50^th anniversary with a ceremony at the Farnborough International Airshow.

     The two companies first came together in 1956 with an engine production licence and since then have combined their skills and technology to achieve many  successes,  including HAL becoming a member of the Rolls-Royce global supply chain in 2003.

     While Rolls-Royce looks forward to its future potential in India, HAL and
Rolls-Royce are already busy extending their the partnership to include co production of the Adour engines for India’s new Hawk, their Advanced Jet Trainer.

     Speaking at the Farnborough today, Rolls-Royce Chief Executive Sir John Rose said: “India, and HAL in particular, holds a very special place in the history of Rolls-Royce. We are proud of this valued partnership and also proud of the high quality of engines we have together been able to deliver to the Indian Air Force and the Indian Navy during the past 50 years.”

     “We now look forward to expanding this partnership, that will include co-production of the Adour engines for India’s new Hawk  Advanced Jet Trainer. “

     HAL Chairman Ashok Baweja said: “When HAL first built the Orpheus 50 years ago, little did we think that we would still be overhauling and flying this engine in the Indian Air Force today!

     “HAL is proud to have built 750 Orpheus 701 and 703 engines and, so far, overhauled 2618. With the Kiran MkII expected to continue in service until replaced by HAL’s new Intermediate Jet Trainer, the Orpheus still has a lot of life ahead.

     “We in HAL, also look forward to a continuing successful partnership with Rolls-Royce for the Adour and other new programmes. It is truly a golden anniversary of the HAL/Rolls-Royce relationship.”

     HAL also became a contributor to the Rolls-Royce civil aviation business in 2003 when it started supplying ring forgings to Rolls-Royce for its Trent family of engines.

     Although the Orpheus engine licence production agreement was signed in 1956, HAL had already entered the jet age with assembly of Goblin-powered de Havilland Vampires in 1952. But it was the establishment of the Engine Division at Bangalore to build the Bristol Siddeley Orpheus for the Folland Gnat trainer, HF-Marut and Kiran MkII jet trainer that really launched HAL into the aero engine business.

     Since then, other agreements covered a range of civil and military aero engines. Indian Air Force Jaguars, used as deep penetration strike aircraft, are powered by the Rolls-Royce Turbomeca Adour engine which HAL has been licence manufacturing since 1978. 

     This engine is a proven winner and is operated by over 20 military forces worldwide accumulating over seven million flying hours to date. Flight experience with the Adour in aircraft such as the Hawk is considerable and the engine’s ruggedness, maintainability and low cost of ownership has been fully demonstrated.

     Under a new licence agreement, the Adour 871 will be manufactured by HAL and will power the Hawk Advanced Jet Trainer for India.

     HAL is also involved in the repair and overhaul of the Rolls-Royce Avon, Dart, Adour and Gnome aero engines as well as Avon and 510K industrial gas turbines.

     Rolls-Royce engines including the Avon, Viper, Dart, Pegasus, Model 250, Gnome H1400 for aircraft like the Canberra, Avro 748, Sea Harrier, Britten Norman Islander and the Sea King are in service with the Indian Armed Forces.

     The relationship with HAL is at the heart of the long-standing and successful history Rolls-Royce has with India, now for more than 70 years. Rolls-Royce chose HAL’s home city of Bangalore for its new wholly-owned subsidiary, Rolls-Royce Operations India Limited (RROIPL) to manage and develop the growing volume of engineering work that the Group is sub-contracting to India.