PT Dirgantara Indonesia sends CN 235-2220 to Nepal

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta-PT Dirgantara Indonesia or PTDI today sent an aircraft unit of CN235-220 Military Transport to Nepalese Army. Related to that, ferry flight from Hanggar Fixed Wing PTDI, Bandung, to Kathmandu, Nepal, which was planned to arrive on November 2, 2019.

The aircraft would be flown by CAPT. Esther Gayatri Saleh as Test Pilot In Command and Flight Instructor (acting as Chief of The Mission), and Capt. Ervan Gustanto as Copilot of the CN235-220 aircraft.

The aircraft will take off from Husein Sastranegara Airport, Bandung to Medan, then proceed to Yangon, Myanmar, then proceed back to Dhaka, Bangladesh and fly back to Kathmandu, Nepal as the last destination.

Later the aircraft will be carried out advanced Flight Training and Final Acceptance Flight by Nepalese Army. The signing of one unit aircraft procurement of CN235-220 Military Transport was held on 16 June 2017 with the contract number MGO/Fixed Wing/073/74/65 between PTDI and the Nepalese Army.

PTDI'S Corporate Secretary assignment, Irlan Budiman, explains the export program of CN235-220 Military Transport for Nepalese Army Financing of some of its working capital funded by the Indonesian Export Financing Board (LPEI) or Indonesia Eximbank with the National Interest Account (NIA) scheme.

"The use of the NIA scheme from LPEI or Indonesia Eximbank is a special assignment from the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Indonesia for the provision of aircraft export financing," said Irlan, Wednesday, October 30, 2019. LPEI or Indonesia Eximbank also supports PTDI in conducting market penetration in Africa and South Asia.

The CN235-220 aircraft, is a multirole aircraft with the carrying power as much as 48 (forty eight) passengers that can be used for several missions, ranging from reconnaissance, maritime patrol and armed forces transport. Some excess aircraft CN235-220 Military Transport Nepalese Army are as follows:

• Quick Change Configurations (Troop/Paratroop, VIP, Medical Evacuation, Passanger and Cargo).
• Full Glass Cockpit.
• Wide Rear Ramp Door.
• Maximum Take-Off Weight (MTOW) 16,500 kg.
• Maximum Payload 5,200 Kg.
• Short Take Off-Landing (STOL) 977 m.
• Endurance for ± 11 hours.
• Multihop Capability Fuel Tanks, a technology that allows airplanes
to no need to recharge the fuel to continue the flight to the next route.

Until now, Irlan said, PTDI has successfully produced and delivered CN235 aircraft as much as 68 (sixty eight) units for domestic and overseas, from a total of 285 units of the CN-235 series aircraft population in the world.

As for domestic operators using CN-235 series aircraft are TNI AU and AL. While the foreign operators are the countries of Thailand, Malaysia, Brunei Darussalam, South Korea, Pakistan, United Arab Emirates, Senegal and Nepal whose aircraft are been shipped today.