Career in Indonesia[edit]
In 1974, Suharto recruited Habibie to return to Indonesia as part of Suharto's drive to industrialize and develop the country. Habibie initially served as a special assistant to Ibnu Sutowo, the CEO of state oil company Pertamina. Two years later, in 1976, Habibie was made Chief Executive Officer of the new state-owned enterprise Industri Pesawat Terbang Nusantara (IPTN).[7] (In 1985, PT. Nurtanio changed its name to Indonesian Aviation Industry and is now known as Indonesian Aerospace (Dirgantara)). In 1978, he was appointed as Minister of Resesarch and Technology. He continued to play an important role in IPTN other "strategic" industries in this post.[7] By the 1980s, IPTN had grown considerably, specializing in the manufacture of helicopters and small passenger planes; by 1991, Habibie oversaw ten state-owned industries including ship- and train-building, steel, arms, communications, and energy.[7] A 1993 estimate determined that the estimates used nearly $2 billion a year in state funding, although the government's opaque accounting practices meant that the size of the industries was not completely known.[8]
Habibie became a pilot, assisted in his training by A.B. Wolff, former chief of staff of the Dutch Air Force. In 1995, he flew an N-250 (dubbed Gatotkoco) commuter plane.
In developing Indonesia's aviation industry, he adopted an approach called "Begin at the End and End at the Beginning".[9] In this method, elements such as basic research became the last things upon which to focus, whilst actual manufacturing of the planes was placed as the first objective. Under Habibie's leadership, IPTN became a manufacturer of aircraft including Puma helicopters and CASA planes. It pioneered a small passenger airplane, the N-250 Gatokaca, in 1995, but the project was a commercial failure.