shiv wrote:The Air Force test pilots flew a fighter aircraft in Russia for a total of less than 6 hours and felt that its flight characteristics were good but weapons inadequate. Their bosses felt that these details were not important enough for New Delhi to be informed. So less than 6 hours of flying was considered adequate and differences of opinion were suppressed.
Dear Sir, the performance specifications and certification data is given to test pilots days before the flight. Since the certification data is available - max AoA, turn rates, etc, it can be validated in a few hours.
It is incorrect comparing it to development test flight effort - where determination of AoA, etc, goes into thousands of hours.
Thomas Alva Edison spent years finding out the right filament for the light bulb.
We spend less than a minute to test the filament when buying a light bulb by putting it in a socket at the shop.Hope it explains the
significant difference between development flight testing of a R&D project and evaluation flight testing of a certified end product.
Its not equal=equal
Going by the flawed logic put forward by forum members, we should also spend years testing when buying a light bulb.
shiv wrote:From pages 19 & 20 of the IAF's 50 years of the MiG 21 commemorative book - in a chapter written by Air Marshal Partha Dey: about MiG 21 testing in Russia by Indian pilots in 1962
The aircraft could carry only 2 x K-13 air to air missiles and did not have a gun. I flew five sorties totalling 2 hous and 50 minutes and I think Wg Cdr Das flew the same number of sorties and hours. The aircraft had excellent performance and good handling qualities but was handicapped by its limited range and payload. We felt the Operational Command in New Delhi should be apprised about these limitations and their views obtained. Air Vice Marshal Ranjan Dutt and others thought this was not necessary.
Sir, IOC depends on the aircraft performance. In this case, your reference cites "excellent performance".
Tejas too has excellent performance. Only thing is we did not finish validating, fine tuning and certifying that performance before December 2013.
Just like Virat Kohli has excellent performance, its just that when he was 12 years old, we had not yet evaluated him completely. After he underwent evaluation of his performance over multiple matches, the selectors made him Captain. What forum members are asking is Virat Kohli be made Captain at age 12.
You repeatedly bring up missiles and gun. Those are FOC criteria, and can be added later, like Derby on Sea Harrier or Magic 1 on MiG-21.
Even the 20 Tejas Mk1 IOC standard entering service without certified gun or BVR missiles. Those would be certified later like your MiG-21.