Bharat Swati Explained

The Bharat Swati (or sometimes BHEL Swati) is an Indian two-seat training monoplane designed by the Technical Centre of the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and built by Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited.

Design and development

The Swati is a low-wing cantilever monoplane with a steel tube fuselage covered in fabric at the rear and composite material at the front. It has metal tail surfaces and wooden wings and a fixed landing gear with a steerable nosewheel. The Swati has a 1160NaN0 Lycoming O-235 piston engine at the front driving a two-bladed propeller. Directorate General of Civil Aviation ordered 40 to be distributed to civil flying clubs in India.

Variants

Incidents and Accidents

On 3 June 1993, a Swati (VT-STC) being test flown at Haridwar crashed when its starboard wing broke off after coming out of a loop, killing the test pilot.[1]

On 29 November 2001, a Swati LT II (VT-STO) of the Kerala Aviation Training Centre on a training flight at Thiruvananthapuram crashed due to pilot error, destroying the aircraft.[2]

References

Bibliography

Notes and References

  1. http://dgca.nic.in/accident/acc93.pdf CIVIL AVIATION AIRCRAFT ACCIDENT SUMMARY FOR THE YEAR 1993
  2. http://dgca.nic.in/accident/acc01.pdf CIVIL AVIATION AIRCRAFT ACCIDENT SUMMARY FOR THE YEAR 2001