LCA Naval Varient Performs Maiden Deck Landing On INS Vikramaditya
January 11, 2020
The Fixed-wing naval aircraft has been designed such that it has ‘Carrier suitability’.
Today’s successful trial has been a major success for the country’s aerospace industry as well as all the organizations which have been involved in the making and R&D of the LCA.
Big achievement for the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)! The naval version of the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) on Saturday morning completed the first deck landing and takeoff on the aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya. The Financial Express Online had reported in November last soon after the successful first-ever night-time ‘arrested’ landing at Shore Based Test Facility INS Hansa, Goa, preparations were on for the Deck Landing trials.
Today’s successful trial has been a major success for the country’s aerospace industry as well as all the organizations which have been involved in the making and R&D of the LCA. These include DRDO, state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), the Indian Navy and the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA).
Two prototypes (NP1 & 2) of the Naval LCA (NLCA) which built by the state-owned HAL is already undergoing various trials. After completing several rounds of tests, agencies are doing trials on the INS Vikramaditya in an effort to ensure that the aircraft is worthy of the carrier.
There is a big team of scientists, designers, engineers, software experts and most importantly test pilots who are working on the NLCA and have been also involved in conceptualizing the project.
“Changes have been made to for making it compatible with the aircraft carrier. Besides the changes in the software, changes have had to be made to the structure of the aircraft, also avionic tools, display signs, and aerodynamic surfaces have gone through the process of being fine-tuned,” said a top naval officer.
It maybe recalled that last September, the NLCA had successfully achieved short landing with arrestor wires on the SBTF. With this success, India joined a select group of countries like the US, Russia, the UK, and France has the capability to design an aircraft that can land on a carrier.
According to sources, the indigenous content onboard the NLCA especially the critical technologies including Aerodynamics, Flight Control, Aircraft Structures, Avionics, are all 100 percent made in India.
The Fixed-wing naval aircraft has been designed such that it has ‘Carrier suitability’.
About the equipment on the LCA – around 60% of the components are indigenously manufactured and this is expected to increase to more than 70 percent in the Twin Engine Deck Based Fighter.
Today’s maiden deck landing test flight was carried out by Commodore Jaideep Maolankar, Capt Dahiya was the Landing Safety Officer (LSO) and Cdr Vivek Pandey Test Director on the ship. Also, Gr Capt Kabadwal and Cdr Ankur Jain were monitoring the aircraft through telemetry from SBTF.
Courtesy: FE Online