Hughes Hu-300

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HUGHES HU-300

On 15 September 1971, a Helicopter Training School was established and it was equipped with three Hughes Hu-300, two seater helicopters. The Hu-300 was based on the Hu-269 which was a popular piston-engined, two seater helicopter used for training and crop-dusting. These two seater helicopters were powered by a 190 HP Avco Lycoming HIO-360-D1A piston engine. These were also used by the US Army as trainers as the TH-55 Osage. Over 3,000 examples of the Hughes were built over the years. Four of these small sized choppers were procured by the Indian Navy [IN-081, IN-082, IN-083 and IN-084]. These equipped INAS 561, earmarked for helicopter flying training. These helicopters were phased out in the mid 80s and two of the helicopters is known to have been preserved. IN-083 is preserved at NIAT, Cochin and IN-086 can be seen at the Naval Aviation Museum, Goa.