Developing PT DI, BJ Habibie Produces Many Special Engineers

The third president of the Republic of Indonesia, Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie died at the Kartika Pavilion, RSPAD Gatot Soebroto, Central Jakarta, Wednesday (11/09/2019), due to his illness. The man born in Parepare, South Sulawesi, June 25, 1936, died after undergoing intensive treatment at the hospital since September 1, 2019.

During his life, Habibie was noted several times as the State Minister for Research and Technology Development Cabinet during the Soeharto era.

In addition to being a state official, he also managed to obtain various international awards for recognition of his expertise in the field of aerospace technology.

Aerospace Scientist

One of his actions in Indonesia is developing the aerospace industry through the Nusantara Aircraft Industry (IPTN). Now IPTN is known by the name of PT Dirgantara Indonesia (PT DI). Through that company, Habibie was able to produce many engineers in the aviation industry.

There are a number of engineers who have worked at PT DI now working in Canada. They become engineers at the aircraft or helicopter manufacturing company headquartered in Montreal, for example Bombardier Aerospace and Bell Helicopter.

As reported on Thursday (17/12/2015), Kompas.com had the opportunity to meet the diaspora who are Indonesian aerospace engineers in Canada at a meeting at the Indonesian Transportation Attache in Canada, Agoes Soebagio, at the end of November 2015.

At that time, the Indonesian Special Envoy for the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), Indroyono Soesilo, attended and gave a positive response to the engineers of PT DI graduates who were judged to have extraordinary abilities.

"They are specialists. If in a special field such as aerospace, they must have extraordinary abilities to become a specialist," Indroyono said.

Specialties

At the meeting, everyone present was found to have their respective specialties. For example, Sigit Afrianto, he is an alumni of PT DI who is involved in the development of CN235 MPA, N250, N2130, and N219 aircraft. His special expertise is in the fields of pneumatics and air conditioning systems.

In addition, there is also Albertus M Tjandra. He is a Senior Technical Specialist at Bell Helicopter Textron who is a specialist for commerical power plants and fluid system design.

"There is still Andreas Hartono who was absent. He was a flight test pilot at Bombardier," added Agoes Soebagio.

According to information on the official Bombardier website, Andreas Hartono is one of the pilots who tested the C Series aircraft that Bombardier is the mainstay.

Most of the Indonesian aerospace engineers have lived and worked in Canada for 10 to 15 years. However, they did not forget the Motherland and claimed to still maintain communication with their fellow PT DI alumni.

"Communication is smooth. We also have a mailing list, so we are connected with friends who were in (PT) DI, and now in the US and Europe," said Tjandra. The PT DI alumni are now working at various international airlines, including Boeing.

The PT DI alumni are now working at various international airlines, including Boeing.

Tjandra revealed, PT DI alumni who are now scattered in various countries in North America and Europe also said they still wanted to contribute and pass on knowledge to their colleagues who were still working at PT DI.