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LCA does `a beautiful take off and touch down'

Our Bureau

BANGALORE, Jan. 4

THE Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), spearheaded by the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) and over 80 other organisations, which was conceived as early as 1983, flew its maiden flight here on Thursday at 10.18 a.m.

The aircraft's flight lasted 18 minutes and was flown by Wing Commander Rajiv Kothiyal of the National Flight Test Centre putting to rest wide-ranging criticism about the project.

The Defence Minister, Mr George Fernandes, called it a red letter day, and a day of triumph for the Indian scientists, technicians, and engineers associated with the project. Stating that ``the LCA had a beautiful take off and touch down'', he said that the country had demonstrated to the world its skills and that there would no looking back now. He added that India was among seven to eight countries in the world with such capability.

However, as Air Chief Marshal A.Y. Tipnis said ``it is the end of the beginning'', as now the LCA will have to fly ``many more aeronautical miles'', before it can reach the production stage.

Certification itself would take another five to six years and production would be another eight to nine years, said Dr V.K. Aatre, Scientific Advisor to the Defence Minister.

Dr Krishnadas Nair, Chairman, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), said the LCA contained 70 per cent indigenous technology, and that there would be many more flights, before the LCA could be weaponised, certified and produced.

Dr Kota Harinarayana, Director of project LCA from ADA, said that there would be one more technology demonstration in another three months and by the end of the year the first prototype would be developed. In the next few months, the flight envelop would be expanded from the present 450 km per hour, which it flew today. Design and development will continue as flight envelop increases, as problems could be discovered then.

Each aircraft is likely to cost $20 million each and the project cost would touch $1 billion, half of which has already been spent till date.

Although the first technology demonstration today flew with a GE 4040-engine, the indigenous Kaveri engine is being developed, of which three engines have been tested for 900 hours. The fourth and fifth engine is undergoing final assembly.

The purpose of the flight test programme is to validate a number of advanced technologies incorporated in the LCA, including unstable configuration, quadruplex fly by wire, digital flight control system, integrated avionics with glass cockpit, and advanc e composite materials.

The LCA is a single-seater engine, supersonic light weight all weather, multi-role aircraft, designed for air-to-air, air-to-ground and air-to-sea combat roles.

The LCA programme was conceived in 1983, its project definition phase was completed in 1989 and full scale engineering development phase was sanctioned in 1993. Spearheaded by the ADA with partner HAL, several DRDO labs across the country, a number of PS Us, scientific research labs, ordnance factories, and academic institutions along with several private sector organisations have been involved with the project.