HAL HF-24 Marut "Spirit of the Tempest" by: Kurt Tank

www.fas.org...

"The Hindustan Aeronautics Limited HF-24 Marut fighter-bomber was built in India, based on a design by Kurt Tank, famous for his Focke-Wulf aircraft built for Germany during WWII. The Marut featured a small swept wing and excellent maneuverability. It had limited combat potential because of the low engine power, and could barely reach supersonic speeds in level flight. The first prototype flew on June 17, 1961, with a total of 147 aircraft built, including 18 two-seat HF-24 Mk 1Ts."



I have known for long time that this plane "was around".. and that it was used as Fighter-Bomber in Indias wars of 1965/1971 againt Pakistan, but what didnt know that Kurt Tank the famous Focke-Wulf designer designed it..

Truly the last JABO, the Lone Eagle..

Would this have to do anything with the fact that swastika is/was ancient hindu "marking"?

Here are some details of its service:

www.bharat-rakshak.com...

www.bharat-rakshak.com...

"All in all the Marut squadrons acquitted themselves very well. The Marut, as an aircraft, was shown to be tough and capable. No aircraft were ever lost in air-to-air combat. However, 4 were lost to ground fire and two were lost on the ground. The Maruts were in the thick of it, right through the fighting on the western front, and the Squadrons ended the war with a total of three Vir Chakras."

Seems like it was besides being beautiful aircraft, also robust a war-machine.. sadly they were wfu in 1985..


"Swan Song D-1205 , a serviceable (except for the expired ejection seat cartridge) late series Marut of the IAF museum is �towed� past the crowd at Palam on Air Force Day 1997. Note the painted -over fibre glass antenna fairings on the spine and fin tip and upper gun ports faired over."

[Edited on 25-8-2003 by FULCRUM]

Very interesting and good looking aircraft.

Yeah, i know that is why i shared this with you all..
Funny thing that it shuold have "all-natural metal" finish.. no camo.. but it saves in weight, make performance better, as like US 8. airforce stopped painting the B-17s they were 500kgs lighter..

But back to Marut.. Here is another article: "When the wind blows"

www.bharat-rakshak.com...



"My father boards BD-834 at A&ATU in 1964. Notice the airbrakes that dropped out vertically" ..nice view..

www.bharat-rakshak.com...

HF-24 Marut had even some success is AA combat, it didnt lose none to enemy aircraft and shot 1 F-86 Sabre down, But Maruts did lose 4 to Ground defences.. (AAA?) in 1971 war.


"BD-888 was the first Marut airframe to be constructed as a two-seat type trainer by the IAF. It was designated as a Mk.1T. HAL went on to produce about 19 such two seater versions of the Marut."

Just beautiful!

Here are technical details for Marut:

www.luftfahrtmuseum.com...

The ext. 4 pts. (4 wing pylons..) each for 1000lb max. Makes max load of weapons 4x30mm each with 120 rounds, plus 4000lb/1816kg of bomb/rockets? Max 4x1000lb/454kg bomb (MK 83 size..)


"A pilot of the No.10 Squadron poses in front of his HF-24 Marut."

Nobody seems to be intressed in this fine aircraft..
At least nobody havent post anything exept Jetsetter..
Well i am.. intressed.. i think it is cool looking, but under estimated..
It is also only REAL COMBAT AIRCRAFT build by HAL.. (Indians, Hindustan..) That they have desingned by themselfs..
With kind assistance of Kurt Tank..
At least until the LCA enters service, IF IT DOES..
MIGs and JAGUARs or GNATs and AJEETs werent designed in India.. not really..

HAL HF-24 Marut was, one fine piece of work!



And with its natural metal finish it remainds me of "ThunderBirds" series.. somehow..

THUNDERBIRDS ARE GO!

Squadrons which used Marut:

no. 10
no. 31
no. 220

"Of the 145? Marut produced, 130+ entered squadron service.."

Wonder whats with that..

"Given the limited number of Marut units, most Marut squadrons were considerably over-strength for the duration of their lives. According to Brian de Magray, at peak strength No.10 Squadron had on charge 32 Maruts! Although the squadron probably did not hold a unit-establishment of more than 16."

"The last unit to give up its Maruts was No.31 Sqn, whose aircraft were finally withdrawn in mid-1990."

Btw "Marut" translates as:
www.studenten.net...
"Spirit of the Tempest"


Edit: direct linked oversized image/photo

[edit on 26-6-2005 by Seekerof]

Lets see.....
1) its ugly
2) India's first indegenius fighter aircraft and Asia's first supersonic fighter.
3) Couldn't be improved very much further than shown due to lack of suitable powerplants. The Marut was very under-powered.
4) The rate of production of the Hal HF-24 Marut was very slow thanks to militant unions who would go beserk and on strike if the workers had to do any work!
5) In the 1965 War, Marut's was suposedly shot down by a F-104 Starfighter.
6) India hadn't developed a serious fighter aircraft for over 30 years, since the Marut. The LCA is the first since.
7) It was known as a good ground attack aircraft.
8) The Marut was not an air-superiority weapon.
9) In short....the Marut project was quite a good program, given how extensively the cards were stacked against it at the start.
10) I give it a 7 out of 10.

regards
seekerof

All others i allready knew, but:

1) It really isnt ugly.. no way..

5) During 1965 war there was only 1 HF-24 "operational".. the prototype? And somehow i cant image transsonic Marut fighting and winning the 2,5 mach F-104.. if things appeared to go "wrong way" for F-104 pilot he could easily just escape.. fly away..

10) As a weapon i would only give it 3/10 as it was not "air-superiority weapon" and to be effective as fighter-bomber the numbers just were to small..

With 3 squadrons one cant achieve much..

I don't see how you can call the Marut ugly. I think the fact that it was produced at all is a great achievement. I just recently "discovered" this aircraft and have fallen in love with its good looks.

Note to Admins: Please revise the search feature to prevent double posts. I searched for HF-24 before posting my Marut thread and I got nothing. Actually there WAS a link, but I clicked on it and nothing happened. After 5 min or so of trying to get the link to work, I made my post.

reply to post by Seekerof


May I correct

Starfighter shot the Marut which was about to line up to take off.

The aircraft was designed to fly at 2 Mach but the Bharat Sarcar policies madesure that proper engine was not make available.Buying from out
side might bringh black money to politicians. HAL may not give a penny

I hope similar things do not take place to Tejas (LCA)

You would truly have to stretch things to find some connection based upon swastikas concerning this particular aircraft, unless you can find some Argentine swastika implications

Prior to his move to HAL, Tank had been working for FMA in Argentina, where he designed the Pulqui II (IAe.33) (Pulqui I was designed By Dewoitine). He followed up this design with the IAe.43 Pulqui III.

Now, just by coincidence (or considering the fact that this is posted on a site dedicated to conspiracy theories - perhaps suspicious!) that the history of these aircraft happens to be covered by an article in the current edition of International Air Power Review (Vol.25).

Here is a quote from that article.....
'....... in January 1955 Kurt Tank's contract came to an end. He asked (President) Peron for an amount of money almost the double of what he had received under the former contract. Peron rejected that and Tank went to India.'

So, as with most things in the aviation industry, the 'karma' concerning Tank working in India was all about money!

Included in the article is a photograph of a wind tunnel model of IAe.43 Pulqui III, and it is very clear that the Marut is based very closely upon that design.

The Winged Wombat

The only thing about that I might question WW is that swources I have refer to Reimar Horten's delta wing IAe 37 as the Pulqui III, If anything Tank's IAe 43 would be the3 'Pulqui IV'.

Definitely the same project that became the Marut though.

You may well be correct. I wouldn't be at all surprised to learn that the Pulqui III name had been re-used or indeed used for both projects.

The article also covers the Horten fighter types, plus the work of the Italian Pallavicino in Argentina.

Interestingly (according to the article) the original Pulqui II was an indigenous design by Morchio and Ricciardi which was a development of the Pulqui I after Dewoitine's departure (IAe.27a Pulqui II). Tank had recently arrived and was pursuing a development of his Ta 183. In 1948 the two projects were merged with the fuselage of Tank's design and the U/C of the IAe.27a - thus becoming IAe.33 Pulqui II. Interestingly Tank then became project director and the two local engineers left the project soon after..... Hmmmmm. There is also mention of Horton's work on a flying wing based on Pulqui II, however no designation or name is given to this project.

The article was written by Santiago Rivas and Juan Carlos Cicalesi

The Winged Wombat

reply to post by Seekerof