The Aérospatiale SA 315B Lama is a French-Indian single-engined helicopter developed to meet hot and high operational requirements of the Indian Armed Forces. It combines the lighter Aérospatiale Alouette II airframe with Alouette III components and powerplant. The Lama possesses exceptional high altitude performance; on 21 June 1972, the type established a helicopter absolute altitude record of 12,442 m (40,814 ft), a record which was broken by Fred North on AS350 B2 on 23 March 2002.
The helicopters have been built under licence by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) in India, known as the Cheetah; HAL later developed an upgraded variant, powered by the Turbomeca TM 333-2M2 engine, which is known as the Cheetal. An armed version, marketed as the Lancer, was also produced by HAL. It was also built under licence by Helibras in Brazil as the Gavião.
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