Howrah News Service -  Latest news and headlines on Howrah,West Bengal and World: Intensive tests for Tejas aircraft

Intensive tests for Tejas aircraft
================================================================================
NewsByte on 28 May, 2008 02:58:15
 
Tejas is set to undergo hot weather trials in Nagpur. The aircraft is on its way
to Nagpur even as this correspondent writes.
S. Raghotham caught up with Dr P.S. Subramanyam, the LCA project director.
Q: Dr Subramanyam, what are these trials of the Tejas aircraft in Nagpur and
other places for?
A: We will be conducting hot weather trials on the aircraft in Nagpur before
the end of this month or in early June. The Nagpur trials are to see how the
aircraft and its subsystems work in hot weather conditions. We expect to
experience an ambient temperature of 45º centigrade and characterise the
aircraft. We had planned to conduct cold weather trials in Leh in early April.
We wanted to "soak" the aircraft in ambient temperatures of 10º centigrade and
less. But by the time we were ready, the temperature in Leh rose above that
level. So, those trials are now delayed to 2009. In August-September, we will
take the aircraft to Jaisalmer for weapon trials.
Q: There has been a lot of criticism of the LCA project regarding delays and
cost overruns. How do you respond to them?
A: See, you must understand the history of the project. It was first proposed
in 1983, but the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) itself came into
existence only in 1985. And, we had three people then. Initial activity started
in 1986 when ADA was given a small corner in the National Aeronautical
Laboratory. In 1987-88, Dassault of France was commissioned to do preliminary
feasibility studies. It was only in 1989 that we came to understand what the
project entailed. We gave our report to the government, and said we would need
to produce seven aircraft to complete the programme.
The government said just build two technology demonstrators. It was then
considered nothing more than an engineering project. Even money for phase one of
the full-scale engineering project was given only in 1993. Now, the technology
development included a fly-by-wire system, real-time embedded controllers and
other sub-systems.