Aero India 2023: HAL removes Lord Hanuman sticker from HLFT-42 aircraft

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited removed a sticker of Lord Hanuman stuck on the vertical fin of the Hindustan Lead-in Fighter Trainer (HLFT-42) on Tuesday, which is on display at the Aero India 2023 in Bengaluru. The HAL’s aircraft had the image of Lord Hanuman with the slogan "The storm is coming", which was displayed on the first day of Asia's largest air show, which took off on Monday.

On Tuesday, though the slogan was still there, the image of Lord Hanuman was removed from the aircraft.

A HAL official said that the slogan was coined for India's first indigenous aircraft HF-24 Marut, which meant wind. He added that there was no specific reason to put the image of Lord Hanuman. 

"There used to be a HAL aircraft called HF-24 Marut. HLFT-42 was derived from HF-24 Marut. There is nothing specific to derive from the image,” HAL Chairman and Managing Director CB Anathakrishnan said. “After internal discussion, we decided to remove the image of Hanuman as it is not appropriate to put it now," he added. 

Watch: Here's All You Need To Know About Aero India 2023

On Monday, the HAL for the first time displayed its scale model HLFT-42. The HLFT-42 is the 'Next Gen Supersonic Trainer' that will play a "critical role" in modern combat aircraft training with state-of-the-art avionics like Active Electronically Scanned Array, Electronic Warfare Suite, Infrared Search and Track with Fly by Wire control system. The aeronautics body said that they had decided to use Hanuman's picture to display the power of the aircraft. 

Asia’s biggest aero show, Aero India 2023, was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Bengaluru on Monday. As many as 809 defence companies, including MSMEs and start-ups, are present at the show. Airbus, Boeing, Dassault Aviation, Lockheed Martin, Israel Aerospace Industry, BrahMos Aerospace, Rolls Royce, Larsen & Toubro, Bharat Forge Limited, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), and Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) are among the major exhibitors of Aero Indian 2023.