..:: India Strategic ::.. Military Aviation: Indigenous Tejas combat jet successfully tested at high altitude air base

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Editorial

Indigenous Tejas combat jet successfully tested at high altitude air base

Published : December 2008

Bangalore. India’s indigenous Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) achieved another milestone Dec 13 when it landed at Leh airbase in Jammu & Kashmir, one of the highest airfields in the world at 10,600 feet.

The objective of the test flight was also to expose the onboard systems to extremely low temperatures, prevailing “from plus 5 to minus 20 degree Celsius.”

The aircraft has already undergone successful tests in hot and humid temperatures in other parts of India in the summer of 2008.

“Besides exposing the onboard systems to the extremely low temperatures, the objective was to make an assessment of the aircraft’s performance in the rarified atmospheric conditions,” Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) spokesman Suranjan Pal said in New Delhi.

Two Tejas prototypes PV-3 and limited series production (LSP)-2 aircraft are involved in the environmental test.

“LSP-2 powered by the latest IN20 engine with Full Authority Digital Engine Control (FADEC) is in the Standard of Preparation (SOP) that will be cleared for induction in to Service. As per reports received from the trial location, the current phase of flight trial is progressing well with aircraft and systems performing well as expected,” he said.

The aircraft were soaked overnight in cold weather, with temperature around Minus 20 deg and powered up the next day for operation. The operation of the aircraft were satisfactory. Real time telemetry link between Pathankot, the base camp and NFTC of Bangalore was also made operational during the trial.”

In the summer trials, conducted at Nagpur air base in central India, the aircraft were similarly tested at a temperature of 40 degrees C. The aircraft were parked for two to four hours to achieve a skin temperature of 70 degrees C, and the equipment functioned to the satisfaction of the development team.

The aircraft were also flown for the first time to a distance of 1000 km with the help of external fuel tanks from Bangalore to Nagpur non-stop.

The tests are being conducted with a mobile telemetry station in real time.

The success of the trials is the result of team effort of professionals from different organizations involved in the programme such as ADA, HAL, CEMILAC, DG-AQA, ADE, NAL and IAF.

The flight trials are being conducted by the Test Pilots and Flight Test Engineers of the National Flight Test Centre (NFTC) under the direction of Air Cmde Rohit Varma, Project Director (Flight Test).

Mr PS Subramanyam, Director, ADA, Mr Ashok Naik, Managing Director (BC), HAL, and Mr P S Krishnan, Director, ADE were present at Leh during the tests to monitor the results firsthand.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) will get the first eight Tejas aircraft during 2010 and 2012, and then serial production will begin for both the IAF and the Indian Navy for shipboard operations..