The Shorts Sealand has a special place in the heart of Indian Naval Aviation. The type was the first aircraft to be inducted after the establishment of the Directorate of Naval Aviation and training of Indian Naval Aviators. An order for ten of these amphibians was placed in 1952 in a contract that was worth £ 320,000.

 

After the procurement of the Sealands and the Firefly aircraft, a need was felt by the navy to start its own ab-initio Pilot Training, which till that point of time was being done by the IAF. Towards this goal, the Navy procured three HT-2 primary trainers from HAL, these (IN 121-123) being ferried to the FRU at Cochin on 7th October 1956 by Lt Cdr D D Law and Lt R A J Anderson. 

The Chetak was first inducted into Indian Navy Service in 1961. Over the years 85 of these helicopters have seen service with the Navy

 

Type: Basic & Intermediate Jet Trainer.

Variant in Navy service: Mk.2 standard - full weapons capability.

On 15 Sept 1971, a Helicopter Training School was established and it was equipped with three Hughes Hu300 two seater helicopters. The Hu-300 was based on the Hu-269 which was a popular piston-engined two seater helicopter best used for training and crop-dusting.