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Bangalore. India’s indigenous Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) achieved
another milestone Dec 13 when it landed at Leh airbase in Jammu & Kashmir, one
of the highest airfields in the world at 10,600 feet. The objective
of the test flight was also to expose the onboard systems to extremely low temperatures,
prevailing “from plus 5 to minus 20 degree Celsius.” The aircraft
has already undergone successful tests in hot and humid temperatures in other
parts of India in the summer of 2008. “Besides exposing the onboard
systems to the extremely low temperatures, the objective was to make an assessment
of the aircraft’s performance in the rarified atmospheric conditions,”
Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) spokesman Suranjan Pal said in
New Delhi. Two Tejas prototypes PV-3 and limited series production (LSP)-2
aircraft are involved in the environmental test. “LSP-2 powered by
the latest IN20 engine with Full Authority Digital Engine Control (FADEC)
is in the Standard of Preparation (SOP) that will be cleared for induction in
to Service. As per reports received from the trial location, the current phase
of flight trial is progressing well with aircraft and systems performing well
as expected,” he said. The aircraft were soaked overnight in cold
weather, with temperature around Minus 20 deg and powered up the next day for
operation. The operation of the aircraft were satisfactory. Real time telemetry
link between Pathankot, the base camp and NFTC of Bangalore was also made operational
during the trial.”  In
the summer trials, conducted at Nagpur air base in central India, the aircraft
were similarly tested at a temperature of 40 degrees C. The aircraft were parked
for two to four hours to achieve a skin temperature of 70 degrees C, and the equipment
functioned to the satisfaction of the development team.
The aircraft were
also flown for the first time to a distance of 1000 km with the help of external
fuel tanks from Bangalore to Nagpur non-stop. The tests are being conducted
with a mobile telemetry station in real time. The success of the trials
is the result of team effort of professionals from different organizations involved
in the programme such as ADA, HAL, CEMILAC, DG-AQA, ADE, NAL and IAF. The
flight trials are being conducted by the Test Pilots and Flight Test Engineers
of the National Flight Test Centre (NFTC) under the direction of Air Cmde Rohit
Varma, Project Director (Flight Test). Mr PS Subramanyam, Director, ADA,
Mr Ashok Naik, Managing Director (BC), HAL, and Mr P S Krishnan, Director, ADE
were present at Leh during the tests to monitor the results firsthand. The
Indian Air Force (IAF) will get the first eight Tejas aircraft during 2010 and
2012, and then serial production will begin for both the IAF and the Indian Navy
for shipboard operations.. | 
