Gatotkaca's dream: Born to fly, but not too high

Gatotkaca's dream: Born to fly, but not too high

Novan Iman Santosa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

In ancient Greek mythology, Icarus is depicted as representing
man's desire to fly like the birds, while here in Indonesia we
have a similar mythological figure: Gatotkaca, a character from
the classical Mahabharata epic.

While Icarus was a prisoner who tried to escape by making
wings from feathers held together with wax, Gatotkaca was a noble
knight gifted with the ability to fly. He is also known as
Tetuko.

No wonder that the first plane produced in this country was
named after him, the prototype of the CN-235 commuter aircraft,
which made its maiden flight in 1983.

The high-wing, twin turboprop aircraft was designed and
developed by the then Nurtanio Aircraft Industry (IPTN) in
cooperation with Spain's Construcciones Aviacion SA (CASA).

Officially established on April 26, 1976, it was renamed
Nusantara Aircraft Industry on Oct. 11, 1985, by president
Soeharto. Finally, the name was changed to PT Dirgantara
Indonesia (PT DI) by the then President Abdurrahman Wahid on Aug.
24, 2000.

The successful maiden flight of the CN-235 was considered one
of IPTN's most prestigious achievements although the company had
previously produced and assembled other types of airplanes and
helicopters.

Before the CN-235, IPTN had produced various types of aircraft
and helicopters under licensing agreements, including the CN-212
Aviocar under license from CASA, the NBO-105 helicopter under
license from Germany's Messerschmitt Bolkow Blohm (MBB), the NSA-
330 Puma and NSA-332 Super Puma helicopters under license from
France's Aerospatiale and the NBell 412 under license from Bell
Textron of America.

The original codes for these aircraft did not have the prefix
"N", which was added to signify that the aircraft were made by
IPTN.

IPTN also acted as a subcontractor for various aircraft
manufactured by Airbus and Boeing. The company's most recent
subcontracting work is for the latest Airbus aircraft, the double
decker Airbus A-380, which it is claimed will revolutionize the
aviation industry.

After the joint venture period, IPTN considered it was time to
start designing its own passenger aircraft.

First came the twin turboprop N-250, which may be termed a
larger version of the CN-235 as both aircraft have similar
arrangements.

A more ambitious project started in 1995 with the N-2130, a
130-seater regional aircraft powered by turbofan engines instead
of turbopropeller engines. Perhaps the leap was too high and too
adventurous.

Unfortunately, while the world is celebrating the first
hundred years of powered aviation, Indonesia has been forced to
see the once high-flying symbol of its industrial development
being brought down to earth with a bang.

The year 2003 itself has been a mixed year for world aviation
as it saw the only supersonic passenger aircraft, Concorde,
terminate its trans-Atlantic services from New York to London and
Paris due to technical and financial problems.

A more tragic blowout happened when the American space shuttle
Columbia exploded in the sky upon reentry, causing the same shock
and terror as when Challenger blew up during take-off.

Financial problems and mismanagement have led to PT DI
retaining only about 3,000 workers out of a workforce that
formerly numbered more than 9,000, a move the company says is
essential for its survival.

In the early days, economists warned that Indonesia did not
need an aerospace industry as it was simply too great a
technological leap at a time when most of the Indonesian
population were poor farmers.

They said that more advanced Asian countries like Japan and
South Korea did not overly focus on manufacturing aircraft
themselves even though both countries had much better industrial
bases than Indonesia.

However, considering the geography of Indonesia, and the fact
that it has more than 17,000 islands, air is the only viable
means of transportation, especially given the thickly forested
topography of Kalimantan and Papua.

In fact, the situation in Papua is even more difficult with
its hilly topography making cheap land transportation impossible.

Perhaps the issue is not whether to scrap our aviation
industry but rather whether it would not be better to focus more
on the types of planes we are going to produce.

Of course it is impossible to compete with Boeing and Airbus
in producing long-range and medium-range aircraft with more than
200 seats as even our domestic market is limited.

But in the under-100 seater, under-50 seater and 30-seater
classes there are surely plenty of opportunities, especially with
the advent of regional autonomy, where more and more regional
administrations appear determined to procure their own aircraft.