Nurtanio the pioneer of RI's aircraft industry

By Rita A. Widiadana

JAKARTA (JP): Flying has always been man's wildest dream. Man's attempts to fly have been recorded from the Greek legend of Icarus to brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright of Dayton, Ohio, the first to fly an airplane.

The dream also haunted a kid named Nurtanio Pringgoadisurjo from a remote village in Kandangan, South Kalimantan. His early childhood interest was embodied in his bamboo aircraft models.

Neither his father, Nugroho Pringgoadisuryo, nor his mother anticipated that Djoko, the nickname of their beloved son, would become a pioneer of the Indonesian aerospace industry.

Nurtanio's parents simply wanted their son to become a farmer. Their idea was embodied in the name of his son, Nurtanio, who was born in December l923. Nur means lights and tani means farming.

The farming family tried to send Nurtanio to a primary school for noble families, Pangrehpraja, but he was rejected for being just a commoner. He later enrolled in a public school. His talent for creating aircraft models developed immensely.

After graduating from high school in Semarang, Central Java in l943, Nurtanio and some of his friends enrolled in an aeronautical technical school in Surabaya, East Java. The school was established by Japanese colonial troops for local youths.

Nurtanio felt he had been cheated. There were no schoolrooms or teachers, just a boarding house and an airplane hangar belonging to the Japanese air force.

The students had to follow strict schedules. They woke up at 6 a.m and got ready for physical exercise and breakfast. At 7 a.m the students started work in the hangar. Their prime responsibility was to clean the airplanes and then push them out of the hangar.

Japanese technicians sometimes asked the students to help repair the airplanes's engines. Any mistake in overhauling the engines would mean punishment. To avoid the punishment, Nurtanio jotted down the name of each spare part and its right place in the engine.

At first, Nurtanio felt he received nothing but punishment, but he later realized that this was an opportunity to learn about airplane engines.

The Japanese colonial government, which occupied Indonesia between l942 and l945, established schools or military exercise for locals to specifically find young people to help the Japanese run its colonial government.

After six months working the Japanese hangar in Surabaya, Nurtanio decided to quit. It was not as easy as walking out. The Japanese did not allow any student to quit the "school" before finishing all "programs." But nothing could stop young Nurtanio. He escaped to Yogyakarta. Then, a year later and after Indonesia declared its independence, he joined Tentara Rakyat Indonesia TRI, the air force of the Indonesian People's Army. He was placed in the force's Designing and Construction Department at the Maospati Air Force Base (now Iswahyudi Air Force Base) in Madiun, East Java. There, Nurtanio worked with a number of prominent figures like Rooseno, the father of construction in Indonesia, Wiweko Soepono, who pioneered commercial air transportation, and Suryadi Suryadarma.

Together with his best friend Wiweko Soepono, also former chairman of Garuda Indonesia, Nurtanio established an airplane workshop in Magetan near Madiun in February l946, six months after Indonesia declared independence. The workshop, part of TRI's Air Force, marked the embryo of the national aircraft industry. In the workshop, previously a cotton warehouse, Nurtanio and Wiweko were assisted by a group of young men who previously worked for a Dutch aircraft workshop.

They developed a light airplane called Nurweko (Nurtanio- Wiweko airplane). The workshop also produced a number of gliders, one of them named NWG (Nurtanio-Wiweko-Glider). Wiweko manufactured other light airplane called WEL-1 RI-X (Wiweko Experimental Lightplane), which used two-cylinder Harley-Davidson engines.

In l947, Nurtanio was sent to the Philippines to study at the Far Eastern Aero Technical Institute in Manila. He obtained a bachelor degree in aeronautics from the institute.

When he returned, the airplane workshop in Magetan was moved to the better equipped Andir (now Hussein Sastranegara) Air Force Base in Bandung, West Java. Major Nurtanio was appointed commander of the Indonesian Air Force's Aeronautic Research, Development and Production Depot in l953.

A year later, the depot launched the first steel, single seat aircraft called the NU-200 Sikumbang. It also produced Belalang 85, a Grasshopper prototype. Nurtanio modified the prototype into the Belalang 90 which first flew in l958. It was a low-wing modification of the Piper L-4J and was used as the Air Force's primary trainer. In the same year, the depot also produced Kunang 25 (X-40) sports aircraft powered by Volkswagen engines.

By the end of l961, the status of the Research, Development and Production Depot was changed to the Agency for the Preparation of the Aerospace Industry (LAPIP). Nurtanio was appointed director of the agency.

Nurtanio and his staff experimented with three helicopter prototypes called Kepik, Manyang and Kolentang.

LAPIP set up a joint agreement with Poland's CEKOP aircraft company. The LAPIP-CEKOP joint agreement included a contract to build Indonesian aircraft. The agreement allowed LAPIP to build the first Indonesian aircraft industry by producing PZL-104 Wilga aircraft type, licensed by CEKOP. The Indonesian version of Wilga was named Gelatik.

Nurtanio dreamed of producing aircraft to meet the needs of Indonesian as well as Asian markets. While director of LAPIP, Nurtanio designed and produced various types of aircraft.

Nurtanio never realized his dream. On March 21, l966, Commodore Nurtanio and Col. Supadio died in a crash in Bandung on a trial of the Super Aero aircraft developed by another company. Nurtanio was survived by his wife and three children.

To honor his accomplishment, the then Chief of the Indonesian Air Force, Marshall Rusmin Nuryadin, changed LAPIP to Lembaga Industri Penerbangan Nurtanio (LIPNUR). An Air Force base in Kalimantan was named after Col. Supadio.

LIPNUR was made into state-owned PT Industri Pesawat Terbang Nurtanio in l976, which is now growing as PT Industri Pesawat Terbang Nusantara.

Nurtanio's dream lives on.