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Habe' nochmal ein paar Fotos in den Tiefen meiner Festplatte gefunden ...
The IAF will shortly place an order with HAL for eight LCA Tejas twin-seat trainers, powered by the current GE-F404-IN20 engine. Therefore, the force will operate a total of 28 fighters (including the first batch of 20 single-seaters) with the current engine, the one that is unsuitable for any follow-on fighters since it doesn't provide enough thrust. The first twenty fighters will begin delivery by 2011. But following this, the production line will lie vacant for upto 12 months for HAL to re-tool and reconfigure its facilities to produce the LCA with a new and more powerful engine (possible the Eurojet or another). The IAF's rationale is that it doesn't really need an initial tranche of trainers powered by an uprated engine. Therefore, HAL can use the idling time between the two engine configurations, to build eight trainers powered by the IN20 itself.
Posted by Shiv Aroor at 6:39 AM
http://livefist.blogspot.com/2009/02/update-on-lca-tejas.html
BANGALORE: In a milestone, a Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas took off from here and for the first time dropped live stores (bombs) at a firing range.
The dropping of two 25-pounder bombs, with one striking the target and the other falling within the inner 25 yard circle, was undertaken by Prototype Vehicle-3 of the LCA programme.
The successful dropping of the light, marker bombs will enable the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) – designers of the fly-by-wire LCA – to not only prove the working of the aircraft’s flight control software for weapon drops and aiming, but also take forward the LCA’s weaponisation programme.
ADA officials said the flight control system software had to recognise and adjust for the dropping and still maintain the highly unstable flying platform’s handling qualities.
The software had to take into effect the added stores, asymmetric drops, increased sensitivity of the aircraft’s controls and still make sure that the movement of the aircraft’s centre of gravity was still well within limits.
Following this success, the ADA is planning to do as many similar sorties dropping both 25-pounder and 3-kg bombs over the next three days, analyse the results and then prepare for the next stage of the weaponisation programme.
The next stage of weapon trials will see the ADA and the Air Force taking the Tejas to Jamnagar in Gujarat, hopefully by the end of the month. Jamnagar has been chosen as its cross runways will allow the undertaking of both weapon and cross wind trials.
Posted by Ravi Sharma
Kurz zusammengefasst:ADA to equip Light Combat Aircraft with more powerful engines
With DRDO still looking for partners to develop the indigenous fighter aircraft engine 'Kaveri', Aeronautical Development Agency has decided to equip the Light Combat Aircraft Mark II version with more powerful engines after procuring them from global manufacturers.
"We are looking to procure either the GE-414 from US or European consortium Eurojet's EJ 200 to fly with the LCA Mk II version," Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) Director P Subrahmanyam said here.
LCA's Mk II version is expected to join the IAF in 2014 after the initial two squadrons in Initial Operational Clearance (IOC) configuration are inducted.
"Request for Proposals (RFP) is just about to go out and very soon it would be floated," the ADA Director said. The present GE 404-IN 20 engine, he said, was the interim solution as a power-plant for the LCA.
"Since the beginning, we knew that the present engine would be the interim solution as it is adequate for the IOC aircraft. We are looking to get the higher derivatives of GE-414 or EJ-200," he said, adding "we told them (GE and Eurojet) that whatever you have on your drawing boards, we will go ahead with that".
DRDO is hoping to deliver the aircraft to the IAF in IOC configuration by December 2010. IAF will have seven squadrons of the indigenous aircraft of which the first two would be in IOC configuration and the rest would be the Mk II versions.
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http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Feb62009/national20090206116934.asp?section=updatenews
ADA to develop MCA in association with IAF - ‘MCA will have stealth features’
BANGALORE: Even as the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), Tejas, completed its 1011th flight successfully on Tuesday, the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), which has developed the LCA with Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. as the principal partner, is planning to develop a Medium Combat Aircraft (MCA).
Disclosing this to presspersons here, Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) Director-General and Scientific Adviser to the Defence Minister M. Natarajan said the MCA will be developed in association with the Indian Air Force (IAF), to suit its requirements. Mr. Natarajan was briefing journalists at the Aero India 2009 international seminar.
ADA Director P.S. Subramaniam later said that the MCA will have stealth features and the IAF has come forward to evolve the specifications of the aircraft, which could be described as the next generation fighter aircraft. He said the MCA is likely to be in the 20-tonne category, with a twin-engine aircraft, powered by the Kaveri-Snecma engine.
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Five Tejas Aircraft (Light Combat Aircraft) led by Air Cmde Rohit Varma, VM, Project Director (Flight Test), National Flight Test Centre – Aeronautical Development Agency carried out a flypast at Bangalore Airport (HAL) today (February 6, 2009) prelude towards the Aero India Inauguration Ceremony to be held on February 11, 2009. The mission, flown by all test pilots of the National Flight Test Centre, combined flight test profiles for the individual Tejas aircraft with a coordinated rehearsal for the Aero India fly-past.
EADS to join LCA programme; agreement in next three months news
03 February 2009
New Delhi: In an attempt to speed up some aspects of the LCA programme, India is likely to offer European consortium EADS a $20 million contract to provide technical help in the flight trials of the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) programme. Even as reports in the media suggest that the deal may be signed during the forthcoming AeroIndia 2009 air show, commencing 11 February at Yelahanka, Bangalore. DRDO sources suggested very likely the deal could be inked sometime over the next three months.
Technical and commercial bids for the deal had been invited from EADS, Saab of Sweden, Dassault of France, Boeing and Lockheed Martin of the United States, and MiG Corp. of Russia.
Through the deal DRDO's Aeronautical Development Agency expects the shortlisted company, in this case EADS, to help speed the LCA's flight testing through its initial operational clearance (IOC) and final operational clearance (FOC) phases.
The areas of cooperation could include flight envelope expansion; testing for high angle of attack; aero database validation; external stores carriage with emphasis on stores separation; wake modeling and penetration flight tests; and refinements to existing simulation models.
The LCA programme is currently entering the weapons integration stage and the first lot of aircraft are expected to be inducted into the Indian Air Force (IAF) by 2010. The IAF has ordered 20 of these aircraft in the initial phase.
DRDO expects to achieve initial operational clearance with the help of a indigenously developed multimode radar integrated with a weapons suite. It is estimated that FOC could take three years, and an additional 1,500 hours of flight testing, to achieve.
The LCA is a single-seat, single-engine, supersonic multirole air superiority fighter jet of the fourth generation.
http://www.domain-b.com/aero/aeroindia2009/20090203_lca_programme.html