- HAL traces to 1940 and built India’s first aircraft in 1942; for decades it license-produced foreign jets like the MiG-21, Jaguar and Su-30MKI.
- The indigenous Tejas Light Combat Aircraft first flew in 2015, shifting HAL from licence-builder toward aerospace prime.
- A 2020 order for 83 Tejas Mk1A jets was the largest indigenous defence order ever placed.
- By 2025 the order book crossed ₹1.5 lakh crore and the stock had compounded more than 10x in five years.
- 1940 Walchand Hirachand founds Hindustan Aircraft Limited in Bangalore; during the Second World War the British use it to build Harvard trainers and Liberator bombers.
- 1942 It builds India’s first aircraft, the Harlow PC-5A.
- 1964 Hindustan Aeronautics Limited is formed by merging Hindustan Aircraft with Aeronautics India, creating the national aerospace company.
- 1969 Licensed production of the MiG-21 begins, the start of decades of building Soviet and Western jets under licence.
- 1984 HAL license-builds the Jaguar deep-penetration strike aircraft.
- 2001 Licensed production of the Su-30MKI begins at Nashik, India’s frontline air-superiority fighter.
- 2015 The Tejas Mk1, India’s indigenous Light Combat Aircraft, makes its first flight, finally giving HAL a home-grown platform.
- Mar 2018 HAL lists at ₹1,240 a share to a muted public response.
- 2020 The Indian Air Force places an 83-aircraft Tejas Mk1A order, the largest indigenous defence order ever placed.
- 2023 The order book crosses ₹80,000 crore as indigenisation momentum builds.
- 2024 HAL begins development of the AMCA, India’s fifth-generation stealth fighter.
- 2025 The order book crosses ₹1.5 lakh crore with record annual revenue and profit; the stock has compounded more than 10x in five years.
- 2026 The Tejas Mk2 makes its first flight, and HAL is firmly the marquee name in India’s defence-indigenisation thesis.
For most of its life, Hindustan Aeronautics built other countries’ aircraft under licence. The Tejas changed that, and turned a sleepy public-sector manufacturer into the centrepiece of India’s defence-indigenisation thesis. The story India spent forty years preparing to tell is now being told in HAL’s order book. Here is the journey, year by year.
The pattern is the point
For decades HAL was a builder of other people’s designs; the Tejas, the Mk1A and the AMCA have turned it into a credible aerospace prime. The compounding did not come from a single contract but from a national policy finally tilting toward buying Indian, and HAL being the company positioned to fill the order book when it did. The defence story India spent forty years preparing to tell is now arriving, one programme at a time.
