HAL Tejas | Updates, News & Discussions

[SpArK]

Hey Benny, that looks like very poor "subbing" on the original copy. Jumps from LCH to Tejas to version of ALH Dhruva.. The sub-editor seems to know less than the original writer about the subject. Modern journalism.

Its a fusion remix from Brahmand..

I jumped Of My chair the moment I read LCH tejas....

Try this chair.. wont be easy to jump

 

[GORKHALI]

WHAT THE F**K ??? WHY THIS PEOPLE REPEATING SAME OLD NEWS AGAIN N AGAIN ?


Concerns Emerge As Indian LCA-Naval Nears First Flight

Jan 20, 2011




By Asia-Pacific Staff
NEW DELHI

India’s first homegrown carrier-borne fighter effort is moving toward a first flight in March of this year, after missing its target of achieving the milestone last year.

The naval variant of India’s Light Combat Aircraft (LCA-N) completed systems integration tests, ground tests and slow-speed taxi trials following its ceremonial rollout last July, but missed its December 2010 first flight deadline because of concern over the platform’s landing gear and other critical systems; those uncertainties appear to have been resolved.

The naval component of the LCA program — the primary air force variant achieved initial operational clearance earlier this month — receives technical consultancy services from EADS to aid in development. Lockheed Martin had the role, but was unable to obtain requisite approvals from the Pentagon to carry out the work. The consultancy arrangement is mainly focused on aiding LCA modifications in the area of the landing gear, sink rate parameters for carrier recovery and weight optimization.

The naval prototype (NP-1) is the LCA program’s 12th airframe, and is to be followed later this year with a trainer prototype, both of which will go through their flight-test effort and carrier compatibility trials (CCTs) in Goa. The town is home to the navy’s largest air station, INS Hansa, where a shore-based test facility — a mock carrier deck with a ski-jump and arrester barrier assembly — is under construction by the Goa Shipyard company.

The navy has not officially revealed how many LCA-Ns it plans to field and has postponed a decision on committing to a number until the platform receives its improved General Electric F414 engine for a Mk-2 version.

The navy, typically supportive of indigenous programs, has recently begun to express misgivings over the platform it has backed unequivocally since its birth in 2003. Rear Adm. Sudhir Pillai, who heads the service’s air wing, now acknowledges the platform will have performance shortcomings over what the service ideally would like to field, while recognizing that there are benefits, too, of having an indigenous design.

The navy’s apprehensions over platform thrust are much more apparent now, with service sources suggesting that even the F414 is not powerful enough to satisfy the flight envelope they would like for carrier operations.

With the Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier set to be delivered by 2012, and the Indian Aircraft Carrier two years after that, it was revealed this week that the navy is exploring the possibility of keeping its sole carrier, the British-built INS Viraat, sailing until 2020, by which time it will be 60 years old. With a tiny complement of upgraded Sea Harriers left — the bulk of the fleet has crashed — the navy is trying to avoid Britain’s fate of having an aircraft carrier without carrier aircraft.

here's the past news that NLCA PROLEM RESOLVED ATLAST
Livefist - Indian Defence & Aerospace: Landing Gear Issues Near Resolved, LCA Navy To Take Off Soon
Landing Gear Issues Near Resolved, LCA Navy To Take Off Soon
Took this photo of Commodore CD Balaji, director of the LCA Navy programme at the Tejas IOC event on Monday. He's a man under a lot of stress and it showed. He looked distracted, he paced constantly. The LCA-N missed its December 2010 first flight deadline as a result of confidence levels over landing gear and other issues according to sources, though the team (with help from EADS) is working hard to get past niggles and put the jet into the air sometime in the next three months.

 

[Capt.Popeye]

WHAT THE F**K ??? WHY THIS PEOPLE REPEATING SAME OLD NEWS AGAIN N AGAIN ?


Concerns Emerge As Indian LCA-Naval Nears First Flight

Jan 20, 2011




By Asia-Pacific Staff
NEW DELHI

India’s first homegrown carrier-borne fighter effort is moving toward a first flight in March of this year, after missing its target of achieving the milestone last year.

The naval variant of India’s Light Combat Aircraft (LCA-N) completed systems integration tests, ground tests and slow-speed taxi trials following its ceremonial rollout last July, but missed its December 2010 first flight deadline because of concern over the platform’s landing gear and other critical systems; those uncertainties appear to have been resolved.

The naval component of the LCA program — the primary air force variant achieved initial operational clearance earlier this month — receives technical consultancy services from EADS to aid in development. Lockheed Martin had the role, but was unable to obtain requisite approvals from the Pentagon to carry out the work. The consultancy arrangement is mainly focused on aiding LCA modifications in the area of the landing gear, sink rate parameters for carrier recovery and weight optimization.

The naval prototype (NP-1) is the LCA program’s 12th airframe, and is to be followed later this year with a trainer prototype, both of which will go through their flight-test effort and carrier compatibility trials (CCTs) in Goa. The town is home to the navy’s largest air station, INS Hansa, where a shore-based test facility — a mock carrier deck with a ski-jump and arrester barrier assembly — is under construction by the Goa Shipyard company.

The navy has not officially revealed how many LCA-Ns it plans to field and has postponed a decision on committing to a number until the platform receives its improved General Electric F414 engine for a Mk-2 version.

The navy, typically supportive of indigenous programs, has recently begun to express misgivings over the platform it has backed unequivocally since its birth in 2003. Rear Adm. Sudhir Pillai, who heads the service’s air wing, now acknowledges the platform will have performance shortcomings over what the service ideally would like to field, while recognizing that there are benefits, too, of having an indigenous design.

The navy’s apprehensions over platform thrust are much more apparent now, with service sources suggesting that even the F414 is not powerful enough to satisfy the flight envelope they would like for carrier operations.

With the Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier set to be delivered by 2012, and the Indian Aircraft Carrier two years after that, it was revealed this week that the navy is exploring the possibility of keeping its sole carrier, the British-built INS Viraat, sailing until 2020, by which time it will be 60 years old. With a tiny complement of upgraded Sea Harriers left — the bulk of the fleet has crashed — the navy is trying to avoid Britain’s fate of having an aircraft carrier without carrier aircraft.

here's the past news that NLCA PROLEM RESOLVED ATLAST
Livefist - Indian Defence & Aerospace: Landing Gear Issues Near Resolved, LCA Navy To Take Off Soon
Landing Gear Issues Near Resolved, LCA Navy To Take Off Soon
Took this photo of Commodore CD Balaji, director of the LCA Navy programme at the Tejas IOC event on Monday. He's a man under a lot of stress and it showed. He looked distracted, he paced constantly. The LCA-N missed its December 2010 first flight deadline as a result of confidence levels over landing gear and other issues according to sources, though the team (with help from EADS) is working hard to get past niggles and put the jet into the air sometime in the next three months.

Hey Pandora, no need to open your box yet; take it easy.
Designing an aircraft for carrier-borne operations at sea is no walk in the park.
A carrier-borne aircraft is one that is designed for controlled crash landings which have to occur frequently (actually every landing). Believe me, that is what it is.

If you don't wish to believe me; look hard at all the aircraft carrier videos that you can find.
Just to let you know, in Naval Aviation parlance; an aircraft on a carrier never takes off and lands (like other aircraft).
The Aircraft is launched and recovered.

Hope that helps!

 

[SpArK]

How Tejas finally took off-The History ​

India’s first light combat aircraft is the effort of 40 laboratories, 25 academic institutions and 300 companies.

There is a good chance Bachubhai Patel’s contribution to the security of the Indian skies will never be recorded. A pity, considering his role in India’s first light combat aircraft, the Tejas, which recently got its initial clearance.


The late Gujarati businessman, who ran a small outfit in Nashik that made automobile components, designed and developed a mission-critical micro-switch for the MiG fighter aircraft, used by the Indian Air Force at that time.

Till then, such micro-switches, which help engage and disengage the joystick from the autopilot, were bought from Russia, and the supply was undependable. Patel's switch was robust and capable of withstanding 10 million cycles of operation.

Kota Harinarayana, the man behind the Tejas, met Patel in 1981, four years before the Tejas was conceived. He mentioned the need to produce these switches indigenously to the businessman. Patel asked for three months to make a prototype. What he made impressed Harinarayana. “When he brought us a sample of two switches, we found those to be of excellent quality. Patel had even bettered the switches the Russians were using.”


In 1985, the defence ministry decided to build a light combat aircraft to replace the ageing MiGs. A sum of Rs 500 crore was set aside for it. (The final bill is Rs 3,248 crore.) The project was given to the Aeronautical Development Agency, an arm of the Defence Research & Development Organisation, and Harinarayana, then 43, was put in charge. What perhaps made him take up the challenge was the micro-switch Patel had shown him. Over the next 25 years, Harinarayana worked with 40 laboratories, 25 academic institutes and 300 companies to give shape to the Tejas. On January 11 this year, it got initial operational clearance, and is now certain to be inducted into the Indian Air Force in two years. Apart from the engine, almost 80 per cent of the aircraft’s components have been designed and manufactured indigenously.



When Harinarayana started out in 1985, there simply wasn't enough aeronautical talent in DRDO. True, state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) had built a fighter aircraft called the Marut in 1961 but it was designed by a German team (it remained in service till 1990). Harinarayana, the first Indian to get a PhD in aircraft design, had to argue his case for a course in aeronautical engineering before IIT Bombay, his alma mater, saying “if MIT can, why not IIT?” He managed to rope in his research guides at IIT Bombay, GS Patel and TG Pai, to work on the project.



HAL had a design team of 200 to 300. HAL Chairman Air Marshal Malcolm Shirley Dundas Wollen agreed to send a few of his design engineers to ADA. Another 40 to 50 people joined from organisations like National Aeronautics Laboratories and DRDO. Eighty to 100 people were recruited afresh. In a year, ADA had a team of about 400 engineers and scientists. It also reached out to other institutes like the IITs and Jadhavpur University. “If we found a professor capable of doing something for us, we would catch him and give him work,” says Harinarayana.




Now the team was in place but another problem cropped up — it did not have the right computer for designing. So Rajiv Gandhi, then prime minister, stepped in. During his visit to the United States soon after, he convinced President Ronald Reagan to give the IBM 390 computer for the design work of the Tejas. ADA bought CATIA (computer-aided three-dimensional interactive application), the computer-aided design software developed by Dassault, in the early ’90s. Since the Tejas was meant to be a light aircraft, the designers had to use carbon composite materials which were still being developed. ADA then developed the software for designing and analysing composite materials, which it later marketed extensively — Airbus was a customer, buying it for the A380 and other aircraft. Infosys eventually took charge of marketing it.



The next step was to identify companies that could produce the components. Furth India, a small Nagpur company, produced the steel. Another small outfit in Kanpur made rubber seals used to close the fuel tank. Gradually, ADA developed all the electrical components that were earlier imported and helped local companies manufacture them. To make the production commercially viable, the rights to the intellectual property were handed over to the companies. “We brought in an ecosystem in the country where the industry felt confident it could make a high-quality product. Laboratories became confident they could solve complex avionics problems. Academic institutions felt they could contribute significantly,” says Harinarayana. ADA knew the project was a humongous task for a small team. To avoid delays, the project was divided into 1,200 packages, each handed over to one person who would be responsible for its execution. The person responsible had to get his work done by any means — he could partner industry, academia or research labs. For example, instead of importing the multi-functional display for the cockpit, ADA approached Bharat Electronics to manufacture it. Though BEL was interested, it did not have adequate knowledge about the liquid crystal display (LCD) used in the product. So ADA asked the Raman Research Institute, one of the pioneers in liquid crystals, to help out. The Tejas thus became a cementing force between industry and research institutes.

In 1993, ADA felt the aircraft may fly by 1999. But when the project was in the last lap, India conducted another nuclear test in 1998 which invited the ire and severe sanctions from the West. General Electric, which had agreed to supply the engine, developed cold feet. Lockheed Martin, involved in the development of a “fly by wire” flight control system, too pulled back. ADA was then forced to regroup its team of scientists and engineers to develop the entire software and hardware all over again. It was only the recent thaw in Indo-US relations that made General Electric supply the engines for the Tejas. After that, it was smooth sailing for the aircraft.

The Tejas will cost Rs 180 to Rs 200 crore apiece, though the trainer variant could cost up to Rs 220 crore. The Indian Air Force has placed orders for 40 aircraft and is likely to buy another 100. The success of the Tejas has encouraged the government to start work on a civilian aircraft and a regional transport aircraft. A new body, National Civil Aircraft Programme, has been formed under Madhavan Nair, the former chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation. That's the real spinoff.


How Tejas finally took off

 

[GareebNawaz]

we can only wait for tejas mk 2

 

[Imran Khan]

combat range -300km wow

 

[Lord Of Gondor]

^^^^^^That is very old info and Kaveri GTE has been De-linked from the Tejas Program.But AFAIK it has the best combat radius amongst contemporaries.

 

[IndianArmy]

@ Imran Khan , Combat Radius or Radius of Action Is Not The Actual Range of the Aircraft, Combat Radius Is the Distance The Aircraft Can Reach with Full Payload, Accomplish a Mission and with Minimal Fuel Consumption...

Do Not Get Confused Between Ferry range and Combat Radius Next time...

See this Brochure To correct Yourself

 

[MZUBAIR]

we can only wait for tejas mk 2

First wait for tejas mk1 for atleast one more decade....

 

[MZUBAIR]

@ Imran Khan , Combat Radius or Radius of Action Is Not The Actual Range of the Aircraft, Combat Radius Is the Distance The Aircraft Can Reach with Full Payload, Accomplish a Mission and with Minimal Fuel Consumption...

Do Not Get Confused Between Ferry range and Combat Radius Next time...

See this Brochure To correct Yourself

Many prob in LCA.
1) So far no contract or deal is done with lockhead for GE404.
so engine is still issue untill the deal is done.
2) Mutlirole aircrfats are those aircrafts which have fighter aircraft, deap strike and a ground attack aircraft capability.
with 1.6 Mach...and 2000 KM max range it cant perform deap strike or fight with aircrafts having ~2.0 mach speed.
3)It has good Air to Air weaponary system (but they can be fail with this kind of speed) but looks weak in air to ground and air to sea missiles.
4) There is no radar specs.

Overall the aircraft could be little batter then Indian sea harriers....but again can they fly from Aircraft Carrieres.....????

 

[satishkumarcsc]

Many prob in LCA.
1) So far no contract or deal is done with lockhead for GE404.
so engine is still issue untill the deal is done.
2) Mutlirole aircrfats are those aircrafts which have fighter aircraft, deap strike and a ground attack aircraft capability.
with 1.6 Mach...and 2000 KM max range it cant perform deap strike or fight with aircrafts having ~2.0 mach speed.
3)It has good Air to Air weaponary system (but they can be fail with this kind of speed) but looks weak in air to ground and air to sea missiles.
4) There is no radar specs.

Overall the aircraft could be little batter then Indian sea harriers....but again can they fly from Aircraft Carrieres.....????

F404-GE-IN20

GE 404 IN 20 was developed only for LCA. 40 are ordered 24 already delivered.

Yes For India's scenario it can perform deep strike. Pakistan or China aint miles away.

Fight with aircrafts with mach 2.0...but can accelerate faster and run away than the MiG 21. because of better TWR.

Well why A2G is not good?....care to say?

Yeah It is better than Harriers or MiG 21...except in the AoA regime. So it is better than the aircraft it is supposed to replace. So no major worries.

It carries the Elta EL/M 2032's antenna along with the home-grown processing unit. It has a range of 150 KMs for a 1 m^2 target.

 

[duhastmish]

Default Re: LCA News & Discussions
Quote:
Originally Posted by IndianArmy View Post
@ Imran Khan , Combat Radius or Radius of Action Is Not The Actual Range of the Aircraft, Combat Radius Is the Distance The Aircraft Can Reach with Full Payload, Accomplish a Mission and with Minimal Fuel Consumption...

Do Not Get Confused Between Ferry range and Combat Radius Next time...

See this Brochure To correct Yourself

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 909x1200.
Many prob in LCA.
1) So far no contract or deal is done with lockhead for GE404.
so engine is still issue untill the deal is done.

what you are talkign about is - ge -414.

and that too the contract is finalised and signed.

The US manufacturer has won a deal to supply 99 F414-INS6 turbofans for the Tejas MkII, following a selection decision by India's Aeronautical Development Agency.

"GE Aviation will supply the initial batch of engines and the rest will be manufactured in India under a transfer of technology arrangement," says GE India chief executive John Flannery in a 1 October statement.

Specifications (F414-400)

Data from General Electric[20]
General characteristics

* Type: Afterburning turbofan
* Length: 154 in (3,912 mm)
* Diameter: 35 in (889 mm)
* Dry weight: 2,445 lb (1,109 kg) Max Weight[21]

Components

* Compressor: Axial compressor with 3 fan and 7 compressor stages
* Combustors: annular
* Turbine: 1 low-pressure and 1 high-pressure stage

Performance

* Maximum thrust: 22,000 lbf (98 kN)
* Overall pressure ratio: 30:1
* Thrust-to-weight ratio: 9:1 [1]

Specifications (F404-GE-402)
General characteristics

* Type: Afterburning turbofan
* Length: 154 in (3,912 mm)
* Diameter: 35 in (889 mm)
* Dry weight: 2,282 lb (1,036 kg)

Components

* Compressor: Axial compressor with 3 fan and 7 compressor stages
* Combustors: annular
* Turbine: 1 low-pressure and 1 high-pressure stage

Performance

* Maximum thrust:
o 11,000 lbf (48.9 kN) military thrust
o 17,700 lbf (78.7 kN) with afterburner
o Overall pressure ratio: 26:1
o Bypass ratio: 0.34:1
o Specific fuel consumption:
o Military thrust: 0.81 lb/(lbf·h) (82.6 kg/(kN·h))
o Full afterburner: 1.74 lb/(lbf·h) (177.5 kg/(kN·h))
o Thrust-to-weight ratio: 7.8:1 (76.0 N/kg)

 

[luckyyy]

.......

what's the point giving out any details to a intended troll ...does it serve any purpose ?

 

[IndianArmy]

Many prob in LCA.
1) So far no contract or deal is done with lockhead for GE404.
so engine is still issue untill the deal is done.

GE 404 Engines were participating in the tender, so if it is not to sign why did they Anticipate of a Possible deal?

2) Mutlirole aircrfats are those aircrafts which have fighter aircraft, deap strike and a ground attack aircraft capability.

Multirole Aircrafts are those who Have better Air to Sea, Air to Air ,Air to ground Capability with Decent Firepower, And LCA Has Passed all those parameters....LCA Is a Multi Role Aircraft, Not a Multi Mission Aircraft as You define it...

with 1.6 Mach...and 2000 KM max range it cant perform deap strike or fight with aircrafts having ~2.0 mach speed.

Its Not Intended to Perform Deep Strike missions, We have Su-30 MKI's to do the Job, and 2000Km is No Less for a Fighter Aircraft when its range can be extended by mid-air refuelling to 1,000 km

3)It has good Air to Air weaponary system (but they can be fail with this kind of speed) but looks weak in air to ground and air to sea missiles.

How can they fail with this speed?? Well This speed is More than Enough for a Multirole Aircraft which has a High service ceiling

4) There is no radar specs.

its Better to say You do not know about it.... Its Hybride MMR/ELTA 320

Air-to-Air detection and tracking range up to 80 NM(150KM App.)
Air-to-Ground mapping, High Resolution Mapping and surface target detection up to 80 NM(150KM App.).
Air-to-Sea detection, tracking and classification up to 160 NM(250 KM App.)

Overall the aircraft could be little batter then Indian sea harriers....but again can they fly from Aircraft Carrieres.....????

IAF version is not intended to Replace sea harriers...

 

[MehrotraPrince]

Many prob in LCA.
1) So far no contract or deal is done with lockhead for GE404.
so engine is still issue untill the deal is done.

GE Awarded $105 Million Development Contract from India
GE Aviation: GE Awarded $105 Million Development Contract from India

F404-GE-IN20 Engines Ordered for India Light Combat Aircraft
GE Aviation: F404-GE-IN20 Engines Ordered for India Light Combat Aircraft

Give me your postal address I will call ADA and GE Aircraft Engines so thay they can send contract agreement.

2) Mutlirole aircrfats are those aircrafts which have fighter aircraft, deap strike and a ground attack aircraft capability.
with 1.6 Mach...and 2000 KM max range it cant perform deap strike or fight with aircrafts having ~2.0 mach speed.

What is defination of deep strike aircraft?

A multirole (or multi-role) combat aircraft is an aircraft that can be used as both a fighter aircraft and a ground attack aircraft.
Multirole combat aircraft - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

3)It has good Air to Air weaponary system (but they can be fail with this kind of speed) but looks weak in air to ground and air to sea missiles.
4) There is no radar specs.

Overall the aircraft could be little batter then Indian sea harriers....but again can they fly from Aircraft Carrieres.....????

These aircrafts are better
Maximum speed for aircrafts:
F-35 Lightning II : Mach 1.6+
F-18 Hornet : Mach 1.8+

or these in current scenario
SR-71 Blackbird : Mach 3.35+
Mig-25 : Mach 3.2+
F-14 Tomcat : Mach 2.37+
MiG-23: Mach 2.35+
MiG-21 : Mach 2.05+

Aerospaceweb.org | Ask Us - Military Aircraft Maximum Speeds

Radars for LCA Tejas: Elta EL/M-2032
Specifications:
* Weights: Max Weight 100 kg (220 lb)
* Performance: Max Range 150 km (81 nm)

LCA Tejas finally gets Radar! | Defence Aviation

As far as speed is concerned, Tejas speed is Mach 1.6+ with GE404 (85kN) and GE414(100kN) has already been selected mor Mark II it will surely increase to altleast (engine power will increased by 17%) i.e. upto Mach1.8+.

About air to air missile: There is no aircraft presently in service anywhere on this earth which can evade missiles by speed since missiles travel at Mach 4+ speed. Air to air missiles can only be countered through electronic warfare suites, chaff/flare dispenser or by aircrafts maneuverability.


Next time come with some logical argument.