HAL director Baldev Singh commits suicide

Bangalore: State-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. director for corporate planning and marketing and former Indian Air Force Squadron Leader Baldev Singh, 58, committed suicide at Nandi Hills, about 50 km from Bangalore, police said Tuesday.

"Baldev Singh was found hanging by a tree around noon by passersby near Mirza Circle on way to Nandi Hills and alerted us," Chickballapur Rural Deputy Superintendent of Police S. Chelvaraj said.

Sqn Ldr Baldev Singh did early schooling in Bangalore at St. Joseph European High School and later joined St. Joseph College. He joined the National Defence Academy in 1970 and graduated from the academy in December 1972 and was commissioned into the Indian Air Force in June 1973 as a fighter pilot.

After doing operational flying on Hunter, Mig-21 and Mig-23 aircraft, he qualified as a Flight Instructor in July 1983, and was posted to Air Force Academy at Hyderabad for Instructional Flying Duties on the Kiran Aircraft.

In 1984 he did his experimental test pilots course and was deputed to HAL in 1986. He retired from the Indian Air Force in 1989 and joined HAL. He was involved with the LCA Programme from 1990 onwards and was deputed to the Aeronautical Development Agency for this purpose.

On the LCA programme he worked extensively on the development and flight testing of the flight control laws of the Light Combat aircraft.

He carried out the flight evaluation of these flight control laws at the Real Time simulator at BAE Wharton in UK followed by the flight evaluation of these control laws on the F-16, Lear Jet and NT-33 aircraft in USA. He holds a diploma in Aviation Flight Safety from the Naval Post Graduate College, Monterey Bay, California, USA.

He has extensive test flying experience on five prototype programmes and carried out the first flights of the HANSA aircraft and the Intermediate Jet Trainer. He has a Total Flight Test Experience of over 6000 hrs on over 55 different types of aircraft.

He was a Qualified Flying Instructor and holds a diploma in Aviation Flight Safety from the Naval Post Graduate College, Monterey Bay, California, USA.