Jakarta – State-owned aerospace industry Dirgantara Indonesia has delivered the first of nine NC212i military transport aircraft ordered by the Defense Ministry.

The plane is the latest generation of the NC212 family with larger cabin volume and passenger capacity of up to 28 seats, the company said on its website.

The NC212i conducted its "ferry flight" to the Abdulrachman Saleh Air Force Base in Malang, East Java, on Tuesday. The air base is home to the Air Squadron 4 for transport aircraft.

The ministry has ordered nine NC212i for different uses, including "four to airlift troops, another four for aerial photography and cloud seeding in artificial rainmaking and the last one for navigation training," Dirgantara's production director Ridlo Akbar said. He said the ministry placed the order on Dec. 29, 2017.

NC212 is developed by Dirgantara under license from Spanish aircraft manufacturer Construcciones Aeronauticas SA (CASA). There are 588 planes of this family in the world, 177 of which were built by Dirgantara.

Based in the West Java capital of Bandung, Dirgantara began developing the NC212i version in 2014 and has since become the only aircraft manufacturer in the world to produce the plane.

According to the company, NC212i has the capability of takeoff and landing on an unpaved runway. The company sold two NC212is to the Thai government in late 2019.

In December, the company reached a new milestone after completing the final test flight of N219 Nurtanio, another small transport aircraft developed fully by the company.

Science and Technology Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro said the 19-seat N219 plane would soon receive a commercial aircraft license from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation to fly commercial routes in the country.

"The aircraft is developed 100 percent by Indonesia's best sons and daughters, manufactured and assembled by Dirgantara Indonesia, and will also be certified for the first time by regulators in Indonesia," Bambang said.

The plane is named after Indonesia's aerospace pioneer Air Rear Adm. Nurtanio Pringgoadisuryo.

Source: https://jakartaglobe.id/tech/dirgantara-delivers-first-nc212i-plane-to-defense-ministr