Nurtanio the pioneer of RI's aircraft industry

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.