ADA Tejas (LCA) News and Discussions

[tejas warrior]

India’s Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas cleared one of the most critical flight test parameters in the programme, when the pilots pulled 8 ‘g’ (limit of envelope) during its ongoing test flights in Bengaluru. By doing so, it has cleared a key point towards the Final Operational Clearance (FOC), as mandated by the Indian Air Force (IAF).
Sources told OneIndia that Tejas pilots pulled 8 ‘g’ and beyond a couple of times during trials held in the last fortnight of December. Commodore Jaideep Maolonkar, Chief Test Pilot at National Flight Test Centre (NFTC) and Group Capt Rangachari, a Test Pilot of NFTC achieved this critical task taking the fighter closer to the FOC.

Interestingly, officials at the Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO), Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) and Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) were tight-lipped about this major milestone achieved. As reported by OneIndia earlier, scientists and engineers are now engaged in last-minute preparations to take Tejas for the 4th edition of Bahrain International Air Show (BIAS-2016), being held from January 21-23 at the Sakhir Airbase. This will be Tejas’ first official outing outside India to participate in a flying demonstration.

Fighter can now perform combat maneuvers

“The 8 ‘g’ is the limit of the flight envelope which permits aircraft to perform combat maneuvers. This will enable the pilots to do tight turns. They have demonstrated it a couple of times. The pilots are comfortable and aircraft behaved itself,” a source said. As this piece goes live on New Year’s Day, the Tejas programme has so far (from 2001) logged 3031 flights (1938 hours) with nearly 15 variants joining the programme at different stages. Though Tejas skipped the December 2015 deadline for attaining the FOC, the year otherwise was a satisfying one with the first Series Production aircraft (SP1) being handed over to IAF during early January.

“Being a weapon platform, Tejas has to perform in extreme climatic conditions. Therefore the vigorous testing pursued at Leh (-20deg C) and at Jaiselmer (+40deg C) concludes the aircraft can perform in almost all weather conditions effortlessly. Very few aircraft can demonstrate such capabilities,” claims the source.

Gr8 news !!

India’s Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas cleared one of the most critical flight test parameters in the programme, when the pilots pulled 8 ‘g’ (limit of envelope) during its ongoing test flights in Bengaluru.

 

[Anikastha]

What does 8'g' mean?
@gadeshi @abingdonboy @Kshatriya87 @Scarface

 

[Scarface]

What does 8'g' mean?
@gadeshi @abingdonboy @Kshatriya87 @Scarface

"g" in the given context refers to the g-force which is overcome by pilots to not pass out due to G-LOC which is an abbreviation for loss of consciousness due to excessive G-force exposure.

G-force is a measure of the type of acceleration which causes weight.

http://goflightmedicine.com/pulling-gs/

Here's a good and easy read on "g-forces" and pulling "gs"

OR

It may be referring to load factor of the Tejas which is also represented in gs typically.
Load factor is ratio the lift of an aircraft to it's weight which is a measure of the stress an airframe experiences during various maneuvers.

It means that the Tejas is performing maneuvers which subject it's air frame to a load factor (stress) of 8 which can also be expressed as 8 times the acceleration due to gravity (8Gs) and such an acceleration typically causes weight,hence the concept of g-forces

 

[kr9]

Isn't 8Gs under par with other fighters of the same role?

 

[tejas warrior]

Isn't 8Gs under par with other fighters of the same role?

Nope, All 4/4.5 generation fighter pull something similar.. 8g - 9g max.

F16 - 9g
Mirage 2000 - 8g
Gripen Ng - 8.5g

 

[tejas warrior]

Nope, All 4/4.5 generation fighter pull something similar.. 8g - 9g max.

F16 - 9g
Mirage 2000 - 8g
Gripen Ng - 8.5g

View attachment 7056

Also, we need to wait for official confirmation on this as news article say "Sources told OneIndia that Tejas pilots pulled 8 ‘g’ AND BEYOND a couple of times during trials held in the last fortnight of December."

So it can be 8.5g as well.

 

[tejas warrior]

Guyz, How many Tejas are planned to be handed over to IAF by 2016 end ?

Claims have been made for 5 flying in IAF on next IAF Day.. possible ??
http://tarmak007.blogspot.in/2015/10/tejas-in-sqn-colours-to-fly-during-next.html?m=1

 

[Chinmoy]

What does 8'g' mean?
@gadeshi @abingdonboy @Kshatriya87 @Scarface

In layman term, if you start traveling at around 282 Km per minute, the opposite force which you would feel on your body with respect to the time and position would be equivalent to 8G

 

[Agnostic_Indian]

Isn't 8Gs under par with other fighters of the same role?

Yes, ideally it should be able to pull 9g like most of the modern fighters out there. But i think it can be improved on later blocks.

 

[VOCvangoens]

What are the net-centric warfare capabilities of the Tejas Mark 1-A?

What do you guys think of this:

But an Air Force official said the decision to boost the order for LCA-Mark 1s was forced on them by the government to support its policy of "Make in India" defense projects.

A decade ago, Air Force officials said that its combat needs would be met only with the LCA-Mark 2, which will be powered by a higher thrust GE 414 engine, compared to the GE-404 engine currently powering the LCA-1 and LCA-1A.

HAL not only has a poor record or delivering on time, but produces inferior products, the Air Force official said.

Retired Air Marshal Subhash Bhojwani said that while the AESA radar and air-to-air refueling capability would compensate for most of the LCA's operational deficiencies, "with regard to day-to-day line maintenance I understand Tejas is still an engineer's nightmare.

"I have yet to see any HAL aircraft where the canopy of one aircraft fits another without a lot of adjustments, the same for any other airframe component. Each aircraft seems to be ever so slightly different; this is a major shortcoming. US- and French-origin aircraft are designed from drawing board onwards to be easy to repair and parts are freely swappable. If HAL has made Tejas more maintenance-friendly than its predecessor products, then my stated opinion would need to undergo modification," Bhojwani said.

Has a commercial partner been lined up yet for production purposes?

 

[garg_bharat]

Mr Bhojwani is obviously outdated in his opinion. LCA Tejas will be maintainable no doubt. However HAL has inbuilt lethargy and corruption which plays against any decent rollout of Tejas numbers.

Only a private company can make local fighter dream a success. The problem lies more in PSU culture and inefficiency.

 

[tejas warrior]

Mr Bhojwani is obviously outdated in his opinion. LCA Tejas will be maintainable no doubt. However HAL has inbuilt lethargy and corruption which plays against any decent rollout of Tejas numbers.

Only a private company can make local fighter dream a success. The problem lies more in PSU culture and inefficiency.

You can't keep expectations very high when ADA & HAL is making their first development. Afterall how many countries can make it ?

Shortfalls in first development can be fixed in next blocks But for that to happen, you need firm orders of Block1 itself which inturn will create private industries for suppliers.

 

[guru-dutt]

the next step should be make a stealthy version of LCA with PAKFA type twin horizontal tailfins and a pair of forward levcons with an internal IRIST & AESA radar and ASEA based ECM & EW suite and FA-18 E/F type airintakes and a compact retractable IFR and OBOGs system with a latest GE-414 turbofan engine with 3D TVC

 

[tejas warrior]

the next step should be make a stealthy version of LCA with PAKFA type twin horizontal tailfins and a pair of forward levcons with an internal IRIST & AESA radar and ASEA based ECM & EW suite and FA-18 E/F type airintakes and a compact retractable IFR and OBOGs system with a latest GE-414 turbofan engine with 3D TVC

We already have AMCA Project which is twin engine stealthy fighter.

Tejas (Ligh Combat Aircraft) should not have twin engines. It was developed as a light weight fighter to be produce in numbers for economical reasons.

 

[guru-dutt]

We already have AMCA Project which is twin engine stealthy fighter.

Tejas (Ligh Combat Aircraft) should not have twin engines. It was developed as a light weight fighter to be produce in numbers for economical reasons.

why cant we try to make one just for R&D sake we might get for AMCA for what we were trying to tie up with every aerospace giant in the world .. what say you ?

 

[tejas warrior]

why cant we try to make one just for R&D sake we might get for AMCA for what we were trying to tie up with every aerospace giant in the world .. what say you ?

Problem is Budget.
Fund for AMCA itself has not been released, how can you expect money will be made available for only R&D.

 

[guru-dutt]

Problem is Budget.
Fund for AMCA itself has not been released, how can you expect money will be made available for only R&D.

sometimes some things have to be done and if inida wants a better than others 5th gen fighter they have to take this learning curve as they say there are no short cuts to success

 

[Agnostic_Indian]

sometimes some things have to be done and if inida wants a better than others 5th gen fighter they have to take this learning curve as they say there are no short cuts to success

Problem is not only money but also the workforce, both will be wasted in to stelath lca prototype, and will affect the development of AMCA.
1) money can be better utilised in AMCA which is already a stealth jet instead of funding another programme to develope a stealth version of lca.
2) work force - best scientists, technicians and other facilities will get divided in two similar programmes and will delay the AMCA.

 

[guru-dutt]

Problem is not only money but also the workforce, both will be wasted in to stelath lca prototype, and will affect the development of AMCA.
1) money can be better utilised in AMCA which is already a stealth jet instead of funding another programme to develope a stealth version of lca.
2) work force - best scientists, technicians and other facilities will get divided in two similar programmes and will delay the AMCA.

you dont do algebra till you know all the basics of maths and we need much much more knowledge and skills before we dream to make AMCA and even if we do with current base we are bound to fail there is no short cut to success

 

[Agnostic_Indian]

you dont do algebra till you know all the basics of maths and we need much much more knowledge and skills before we dream to make AMCA and even if we do with current base we are bound to fail there is no short cut to success

We are learning things with AMCA, we dont need to do another programme just to learn about stealth designs..we will learn as we develope a legitimate purposeful programme.