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"With the successful maiden flight of the
LCA's naval variant, India joins an elite club
of countries capable of designing, developing,
manufacturing and testing the fourth generation
carrier borne fly-by-wire ski take off but arrested
recovery (Stobar) aircraft," said V.K. Saraswat,
scientific advisor to the defence minister.
The 20-minute test sortie of the advanced fighter's
first naval prototype (NP-1) was piloted by chief
test pilot of the Indian Air Force's (IAF) national
flight test centre (NFTC) Commodore T.A. Maolankar
and co-piloted by the centre's flight test engineer,
Wing Commander Maltesh Prabhu.
"The flight performance was outstanding.
The naval variant is the first attempt to provide
a complete marine force multiplier that will give
unique battle punch to the naval aviation arm
of the 21st century to fulfill the national dream
of blue waters," an elated Saraswat told
reporters here Apr 27.
Though the Indian naval variant is the second
Stobar in the world after the Russian deck based
aircraft, it will be the only carrier borne fighter
in the light category.
The tandem two-seater aircraft flew within the
designated flight envelope and carried out planned
tests, including landing gear extension successfully.
"We have flown on the designated flight
path up to 30 nautical miles from the base touching
a top speed of 450 km from 50 km at take-off and
touched an altitude of about 10,000 feet. We also
did close formation and slowed down to land smoothly,"
Maolankar said after the test flight.
Designed and developed by the Aeronautical Development
Agency (ADA) of the state-run Defence Research
& Development Organisation (DRDO) and built
by the defence behemoth Hindustan Aeronautics
Ltd (HAL), the prototype is fitted with General
Electric aero engine (F404-GE-IN20), as the indigenously
built Kaveri engine of the Gas Turbine Research
Establishment (GTRE) still on the test bed.
Though the naval variant was sanctioned in 2003
with an upfront budget of Rs.1,900 crore towards
its design and development cost, the maiden test
flight got delayed by about five years due to
various factors.
The naval variant is set to replace the ageing
fleet of the British built Sea Harrier aircraft
of the Indian Navy and complement its fleet of
MiG-29 carrier aircraft.
"We are in urgent need of an indigenous
aircraft for carrier battle ships as part of our
modernisation programme. We were hoping that the
first flight would take place in 2007 but is delayed
by five years. All-out efforts should be made
for the initial operational clearance (IOC) so
that we can start flying the aircraft from 2014-15,"
Deputy Chief of Naval Staff Vice Admiral Satish
Soni said.
The Indian Navy has set an ambitious target of
inducting about 40 light-weight fighters in its
aircraft carrier fleet, including the much awaited
Soviet-made Admiral Gorshkov, re-christend INS
Vikramaditya.
In the run-up to seeking to certification over
the next two-three years, the two-seat trainer
(NP-1) and a single seat fighter (NP-2) will be
test flown as technology demonstrations on board
the Indian Navy's Centaur class aircraft carrier
INS Viraat off the Goa coast.
As additional features, the naval version will
have a leading edge vortex control surface (levcon)
to reduce its forward speed for carrier landing,
telescopic landing gear with high sink rate, arrester
hook for deck recovery and fuel dump system for
emergency deck recovery.
"The aircraft is specifically designed for
take off from a 14 degree ramp on the aircraft
carrier deck and use the arrester hook system
to facilitate landing within the deck length of
90 meters," LCA Navy project director Commodore
(retired) C.D. Balaji said.
Besides Saraswat and Soni, the maiden flight
was witnessed by Chief of Air Staff Air Chief
Marshal N.A.K. Browne, IAF training command commandant
Air Marshal Rajinder Singh, HAL chairman R.K.
Tyagi and ADA director P.S. Subramanyan.
(IANS)
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