Bharat Rakshak

Naval Tejas , successfully completed last high speed taxi trials yesterday and NP-1 has been cleared for its first flight . as per sources today will be the day the first flight likely to be carried out .

after issues with undercarriage and Landing gears , problems seems to be sorted out by ADA and HAL and it was certified airworthy recently , it was twice in recent times flight worthy certification was denied to it .

Wishing all the very best for NP-1 successful test flight.

Overcast outside. Clouds thunder and rain predicted for Bangalore for next 4 days

Overcast outside. Clouds thunder and rain predicted for Bangalore for next 4 days

After almost two years since its rollout, the naval prototype (NP-1) of the country’s Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) will take to the skies on its maiden flight this Friday.

The flight is slated for 10 am. But it will fly with some unresolved problems. The maiden flight, however, does not mean the team LCA has overcome all the technical glitches that had forced it to miss several deadlines in the past.

The Centre for Military Airworthiness & Certification (CEMILAC), sometime last week, gave its clearance for High Speed Taxi Trial (HSTT) and flight.

The flight will last 20 minutes with the National Flight Test Center (NFTC) pilots doing a sortie over a designated flight path besides testing the systems onboard for performance.

But they will not retract the undercarriage, as they do not want to take a chance. “It is potentially risky to retract it,” a source said, indicating that there are some problems still persistent. Isn't that the SOP for all first flights?The undercarriage is retracted to reduce the drag experienced by aircraft.

Compared to Tejas, the IAF version of LCA, the LCA NP-1 will be different with a longer and stronger gear, front fuselage droop for better over-the-nose vision, an additional control surface to reduce carrier landing speed and consequential changes in various systems and will fly with a GE-F404-IN20 engine.

Designed specifically for ski jump take-off and arrested landing, the aircraft was faced with heavy undercarriage problem, which sources fear might not have been addressed completely. The undercarriage was bulkier by 500 kg.

The aircraft is likely to replace Indian Navy’s Sea Harrier squadron, and already orders for six aircraft have been placed. While the NP-1 is a twin-seater trainer, the NP-2 will be a single-seat fighter.

“It is potentially risky to retract it,” a source said, indicating that there are some problems still persistent

Landing gear retraction was not attempted on the first flight but did not work when it was attempted on subsequent flights. <snip> A successful gear retraction was accomplished on the fifth flight.

So, on the testing.. is it not possible do rectraction testing while the fighter is in the state of flying (fixed to some hangar support and bolted down, raised up).. perhaps the engine is throttled for 200kmph creating near real simulations.

?

They would have already done that - simulations in the research & design phase and then during & after development on a static test jig and on the LCA platform. But this is not the same as testing on an actual platform flying at xx knots for the first time. There are a host of other factors that will come into play. Besides for the first flight, more important is that the NLCA flies (aerodynamics w/ FBW etc) and if risks can be mitigated by not retracting the landing gears then that should be done.

On the contrary, not wanting to retract it is simply a routine risk reduction exercise.

Bluru is bad for LCA testing we lost last monsoon

Btw when is LCA Navy going to be given a name, AFAIK Tejas was for the AF variant

After almost two years since its rollout, the naval prototype (NP-1) of the country’s Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) will take to the skies on its maiden flight this Friday.

The flight is slated for 10 am.

So long as it passes over Karachi on the way!

So, on the testing.. is it not possible do rectraction testing while the fighter is in the state of flying (fixed to some hangar support and bolted down, raised up).. perhaps the engine is throttled for 200kmph creating near real simulations.

?