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DEFENCE:
WESTERN COAST
Miles
To Go
The LCA
makes a creditable maiden flight but with major slippages in schedules
and rising costs doubts persist over whether it will be inducted into
the air force
By Raj
Chengappa in Bangalore
He
had logged over 1,000 hours of simulated flying in the laboratory that
told him exactly how the controls of the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) would
behave in flight. But when Wing Commander Rajiv Kothiyal slid into the
narrow one-seater cockpit he admitted, "I was a little apprehensive."
For the test pilot, who had done 3,000 hours of flying in 20 different
aircraft including top of the line fighters like the MIG 29, the 18-minute
flight he was about to make was among his shortest. But he knew that for
long years it would remain one of Indian aviation history's most significant
moments. It had been exactly 40 years ago when India had designed and
flown a fighter aircraft-the HF24 Marut which is now out of service. The
LCA would be only the second combat aircraft to be indigenously built
and flown.
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FACT
FILE
Speed: 1.8 Mach
Weight: 5,5000 kg
Controls: Digital fly by wire system
Engine: GE-404
Weapons: 7 stations for all use |
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Kothiyal
enters the LCA's cockpit for the historic flight
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On the slender,
delta-shaped white wings of KH 2001 that Kothiyal was about to put through
the paces rested the combined effort of 64 Indian public and private-sector
institutions. In an unprecedented exercise, they had pooled their resources
for the past decade to overcome years of sloth in the country's aeronautical
development. The project, in the making since 1983, had been bedevilled
by slippages and cost-overruns. The aircraft were to replace the aging
MIG 21 squadrons as the workhorse of the Indian Air Force (IAF). But the
delays raised serious doubts on whether by the time the LCA became fully
operational the IAF would find use for them. There was no question, however,
that the LCA packed state-of-the-art aircraft technology, which, if validated,
would make it one of the most advanced fighters in its league. If and
when it became operational the LCA would make India only among the eight
countries in the world to have the capacity to develop supersonic fighter
aircraft.
As the cockpit's
canopy closed over him, Kothiyal began the series of pre-flight checks.
Instead of the usual jumble of dials, the LCA had been fitted with the
new generation "glass cockpit" that had multi-function digital
displays of all vital parameters. Everything seemed to be in order and
Kothiyal radioed to tower and the National Test Flight Centre where Air
Marshal P. Rajkumar, its programme director, was monitoring the flight.
With a turn of the switch the aircraft's US built GE-404 engine roared
to life. With his left hand Kothiyal pushed the throttle gently forward.
As the aircraft gathered momentum, on a transparent eye-level head-up
display key information such as the aircraft's speed and altitude flashed
on the screen. Just before lift-off Kothiyal turned the engine's after-burner
on for additional thrust and the LCA thundered into the firmament. "Sir,
I have had a smooth take-off," Kothiyal radioed back to Rajkumar.
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Fernandes
(second from left) and Harinarayana clap wildly as the LCA makes
a successful first flight from Bangalore on January 4
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Above him,
two Mirage 2000 fighters chased the LCA, taking pictures of the aircraft
and monitoring its flight. In one of them sat Air Chief Marshal A.Y. Tipnis,
chief of air staff, who had told Rajkumar the day before that nothing
would make him miss this flight. Down below, Defence Minister George Fernandes,
his scientific adviser and director-general, Aeronautical Development
Agency (ADA), Vasudeva Aatre and LCA Programme Director Kota Harinarayana,
along with a galaxy of scientists and engineers involved in the project
watched its progress anxiously. Fernandes was keen on calling the prime
minister on his mobile telephone as soon as the flight took off. But he
decided to wait till it touched down safely.
Kothiyal
allowed the aircraft to climb to around 3,000 M before levelling off and
maintained a speed of 400 KMPH, much below the LCA's peak performance
of Mach 1.8. He also did not retract his wheels because, as Rajkumar explained,
"On the first flight we didn't want to put it through too many variables."
Kothiyal headed south-east to the industrial town of Hosur near Bangalore
and marvelled at the smoothness of the aircraft's digital flight-control
system. "It felt like any of the latest fighters that I have flown,"
he observed. As planned Kothiyal then headed back to Bangalore Airport
to land. The two Mirage aircraft hovered above him like sentinels as he
brought the nose in line with the runway and descended. When the LCA's
tyres kissed the ground, the drag parachute opened to slow the aircraft's
speed. As it rolled into the hangar the dignitaries broke into a wild
round of clapping. Later a jubilant Fernandes told the team, "There
is only going forward from here. We should not worry about the critics."
This was
obviously no time to recall just how badly Indian aeronautical engineers
misjudged their capability of delivering a cost-effective operational
fighter on time. For when the project was kicked off in 1985 they had
hoped to ready the aircraft by 1995 at a modest development cost of Rs
750 crore. But now the cost had ballooned to an estimated Rs 4,000 crore
and the date for induction had been pushed to 2007. Each aircraft now
costs around Rs 80 crore instead of Rs 10 crore. Even then the LCA is
cheaper than contemporary aircraft of its class.
Pg. 2
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METRO TODAY
As
the Government brings in more people and mops more money in taxes, it
must be seen to be rewarding those who come forth and pay up, writes India
Today Associate Editor V. Shankar Aiyar in 