Naval LCA Tejas

[Shaitan]

Mark 1 on top

Mark 2 on the bottom

If the second image ADA gave out of mark 2 is accurate, there's going to be some serious changes to the air frame.

 

[Lions Of Punjab]

 

[akshay m]

so arrestor hook has been integrated

 

[sgarg]

Beautiful picture by Vivek Manvi. The plane looks ready to fight. The primary role needed right now is air defense of southern part of India. I hope navy plays a big role in this task.

Navy has two Mig-29K squadrons now. It should go for couple of Tejas squadrons quickly to provide adequate air defence cover to cities like Chennai and Bangalore.

 

[akshay m]

quite a beauty isn't she

and don't forget to look at her arrestor hook

 

[NLD]

But it was said as dummy according to IDRW.ORG


LCA-NP2, second prototype of the Naval version of the Light Combat Aircraft was today spotted with Arrestor Hook, raising curiosity among visitors if Integration of Arrestor Hook has been completed on Naval LCA and tests on NLCA will soon commence to test hook to be used in rapid deceleration of aircraft during routine landings on aircraft carriers .

But idrw.org was later able to confirm from HAL officials that Arrestor Hook device spotted on keel of the aircraft actually was a Dummy and was placed in manner to look like Arrestor Hook as been integrated in the aircraft . when questioned when will actual mounting take place? , HAL officials confirmed that Carrier Compatibility Testing (CCT) of Naval LCA is still in initial phase , further CCT will be carried out on Shore Based Test Facility ( SBTF) which has mechanism to test ski-jump take-off and restraining gear to simulate Aircraft carriers operations.

Focus clearly seems to test ski-jump take-off operations on N-LCA and Integration of Arrestor Hook on N-LCA will take place at later phase of testing most probably in October said sources close to idrw.org. While another confirmation coming is that MK-2 will be sporting new lighter and leaner Landing gear which will go through further weight reduction to improve safety and make aircraft lighter too.

 

[Lions Of Punjab]

CSIO develops naval variant of head-up display for Tejas
CSIO develops naval variant of head-up display for Tejas | idrw.org

When the indigenously developed Tejas light combat aircraft's naval version made its successful test-flight from a ski-jump a few days ago, feeding vital flight parameters to the pilot was a gadget designed and fabricated in Chandigarh.The Head-up Display (HUD) installed in the cockpit is a product of the Central Scientific Instruments Organisation (CSIO), which has developed various versions of the gadget for the Tejas' air force variant as well as the jet trainer being developed by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited.

CSIO scientists said the naval variant of the HUD, an electro-optical instrument installed above the cockpit's instrument panel, is different from the other versions as the environmental and technical specifications vary according to operating requirement."The primary difference between the ship-borne and land-borne versions is the vertical field of view.

The pilot of a naval aircraft should also be able to see the deck of the ship, which is much shorter than conventional runways, from approach and take-off angles that are different while operating from airfields," a scientist said.Also, the HUD for naval aircraft has to cater to high radiation levels, which are five times higher on a ship than on the ground.

Besides the cockpit configuration of the air force and naval aircraft being different, the onboard systems for naval aircraft have to be more rugged to cater to the harder landings on ships.The HUD superimposes vital flight parameters on the pilot's vision of the outside world, giving him requisite information like air speed, altitude, weapon status, rate of turn and angle of attack at a glance and without having him to peer down inside the cockpit, thus enabling him to fly with his "head up".

 

[Kunal Biswas]

latest issue of Aeromag Asia.

 

[akshay m]

LCA Navy - Nothing Succeeds Like Failure Redefined as Success!

the LCA Navy was an ill-conceived project that should have failed, and it did!

A naval fighter has to be designed and built for carrier operation from the ground up, not as an afterthought, as was the case with LCA Navy.

Strengthening the LCA for carrier operations proved to be a nightmare for ADA. The aircraft's undercarriage (u/c) - required to perform flareless landings with a high sink rate of 7.1 rn/sec, - became grotesquely over-sized because of its positioning in the fuselage. (Compare the u/c of LCA Navy Mk-1 above with that of the Tejas LCA below. The former looks oversized, the latter, elegant.)

The strengthened u/c added weight and lowered the aircraft's performance. As a result, LCA Navy is never going to be operationally deployed on an aircraft carrier - it's very limited weapon load, range and performance wouldn't justify such deployment.

Success from Failure

Failure of an endeavor is often just a turning point on the road to success. Failure is never absolute; it can at best be defined as lack of success. Sometimes, failure can even be redefined as success.

The Indian Government sanctioned Full Scale Engineering Development (FSED) of Naval Light Combat Aircraft (LCA-Navy), capable of operating from an aircraft carrier, on March 28, 2003 with a PDC of March 27, 2010. Had the Indian Government defined LCA Navy as a technology demonstrator project, which is what it has ended up becoming, there would have been no doubt about the resounding success of the project!

As a technology demonstrator project, the LCA leaped out of doldrums when Navy Prototype 1 (NP-1) successfully executed its first ski-jump take-off at the SBTF in Goa on December 20, 2014.

NP-1 attempted the ski-jump after a 300-m roll in clean configuration presumably with full internal fuel. The safe take-off required 150 knot at a climb rate of 6.4 degrees. But, the aircraft bested the benchmark with a climb rate of around 11 degrees.

The flight also validated the hands-off take-off algorithm of LCA Navy's Flight Control Software (FCS).


Reason for Better than Expected Performance
Press reports on the better than expected climb performance of NP1 have been confusing. Here is simple and precise explanation.

The LCA's GE-F-404-IN20 engine needs be at 80% RPM for around 5-min for it to give assured peak thrust at full throttle. Since it's not practical for an operational aircraft to wait for 5 mins before take-off, ADA had factored in the lower than max thrust when calculating expected rate and angle of climb on leaving the ramp. The aircraft designers were pleasantly surprised when due to higher than expected thrust NP1 outperformed the conservative calculations.

It's now clear that LCA Navy Mk-1 could carry more weapons and fuel than initially thought.

At Aero India 2015, IDP Sentinel asked LCA Navy Project Director Commodore CD Balaji if the better than expected performance could result in the aircraft being operationally deployed on a carrier, were the LCA Navy Mk-2 project to be delayed.

"LCA Navy Mk-2 will not be delayed," said Balaji with a lot of confidence. "We are close to freezing its design, which has been simplified. The new design would be easy to implement."

LCA Navy Mk-2

Commodore Balaji's confidence was eye-opening - The biggest pay-off from the LCA Navy project may well be ADA's increasing confidence in its ability to tweak fighter aircraft design to squeeze out better performance. This is evident from the following

LCA Navy Mk-2 has been designed from the ground up as a Navy fighter, independently of Tejas LCA Mk-2.

The fuselage of the aircraft has been broadened and the wing roots moved outwards. As a result, aircraft design has been optimized for supersonic flight with perfect conformance to area rule. (Tejas LCA and LCA Navy Mk-1 do not conform perfectly to area ruling resulting in high supersonic drag.)

Mid section fuselage broadening allows undercarriage bays to be shifted outwards, allowing a simpler, straight and light undercarriage as in the Rafale.

Mid section fuselage broadening also increases fuel capacity.

That is three birds with one stone!

Look closely at the photo of LCA Navy Mk-2 scale model at Aero India 2015, and compare it with the similar view of the LCA Navy Mk-1 on static display at Aero India 2015. Notice how the air intakes in the Mk-2 model bulge out to align with the broadened fuselage.

Finally, the following design layout of LCA Mk-2 from a brochure distributed during Aero India 2015 clarifies what I have stated above about the design tweaks.
Thum! Kaun Aata Hai?: LCA Navy - Nothing Succeeds Like Failure Redefined as Success!

 

[Lions Of Punjab]

 

[Lions Of Punjab]

 

[Lions Of Punjab]

 

[rahulrds1]

At aero india 2015

 

[Blackwater]

loooks good,,, does it fly??? does India got GE 404 engines from amerika

 

[Kunal Biswas]

Continue debate in Civil, Avoid trolling or feeding trolls ..

This is one of the quality threads, Try to preserve it that way, Happy posting !

 

[sgarg]

The answer to @Blackwater is that additional F404 engines are to be ordered for completing the existing orders, as well as additional orders for Mark-1.

GE is ready to build additional F404 if orders are given.

 

[archie]

Was it not HAL had orders 99 F404 engines some time back?

 

[sgarg]

The tender for 99 engines was awarded to GE for F414 engines beginning in 2016.
The F404 engine was last ordered in 2008 and there must be some in stock as on date. The lead time for F404 may be around one year, so more can be ordered as per production plan.

 

[Kunal Biswas]

Manufacturing And Certification Of Composite Structures - Issues And Challenges [Aero India 2013]



uploaded by Luptonga.

 

[Lions Of Punjab]

Naval LCA carries out 'hot refuelling'

Anantha Krishnan M has tweeted last image of Naval LCA carrying out 'Hot refuelling' in HAL premises in Bengaluru . Meaning of 'hot refuelling' means Fueling With Engines Operating . Hot refueling is performed only when operations require rapid turnaround of aircraft, since hot refuel-ing is significantly more dangerous and costly interms of fuel and manpower expenditures. Only pres-sure hot refueling is performed.

A minimum of three ground crew personnel are required for each hot-refueling operation. 'Hot refuelling' becomes necessary in case of missing Aerial mid air refuellers in active combat patrol zone .

Naval LCA carries out 'hot refuelling' | idrw.org