-
Indian Aircraft Industry
Aviation came to India quite early, in fact a century ago, and an aircraft factory, Hindustan Aircraft Ltd., had been set up 70 years ago in Bangalore. But India, from its 25 percent share of global manufacturing in 1750, had been deindustrialised in the previous two centuries and its technological and economic capacity had been emasculated by the Raj. Hence it had no industry leave alone defence industry to talk of at the time of independence. But by 1948, the first Indian design of a primary trainer, the HT-2 was started and soon the licensed production of the first jet fighter, the vampire commenced at HAL. During the Nehru era, the aircraft industry rested on three stands of self-reliance: indigenous design and development, licensed manufacture and outright import in some cases.Unfortunately, after the 1962 War, the need for expansion of IAF led to enormous demands of modern aircraft of all types and the country's defence needs were mostly met by licensed production of hundreds of fighter and transport aircraft and helicopters.:
