India has been declared ILA’s official partner country, and about 25 Indian companies and organisations will be present at the show, with exhibits covering an area of 1,200 square metres. This follows similar ‘official partner country’ participation at the Hanover trade fair in April, and at the ITB Berlin Tourism expo.
But the link between India and Germany is especially strong in Aerospace. Though the Indian armed forces have a long history of buying British and French military aircraft, German engineers and companies have been especially active in helping India’s indigenous aircraft programmes.
Professor Kurt Tank, for example, creator of the wartime Focke Wulf Fw 190 fighter, worked in India from 1955 until 1970, and led the team responsible for creating the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) HF-24 Marut – India’s first indigenous supersonic strike fighter. In recognition of this link an HF-24 is displayed at the Deutsche Museum Flugwerft at Schleissheim in Bavaria.
More recently, the Dhruv helicopter (seven of which are on show at Schönefeld) was designed with MBB’s assistance, and bears a striking family resemblance to the MBB BK 117.
Indian exhibitors at Berlin include Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), and a number of industry and government research organisations.
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Source: Flight Daily News