prasannasimha wrote:The Kaveri will be tested around 2020-2021 on the Tejas as per some Chaiwalla reports.
As far as what ails just think about this - there are only 7 scientists b as new recruits and over 70 scientists G. New recruitment has verily stalled and only the old timers are slogging with no new recruits getting approved. This just goes to show the constraints whereas even the MRE food section of DRDO has over 50 scientists working. That is the reality. Getting alloys made to specification is easier said than done.Guess what the cahs injection to the project is ? Take any other jet engine maker and see the funding . The GTRE heads have to sit in Delhi begging for funds from some Babu and even this is cut and delayed and yet everyone wants a world class engine.
Incidentally the Kaveri at present meets 95% of its design mandate and the push for the last 5% is where all this is going on.
Those in Bangalore can go and see Adhamya Chethana on National College grounds
many "recruits" are seduced away by foreign companies after a couple of years in the DRDP or PSUs. So much for dedicated staff. Everybody wants to get ahead and why not??.
How the hell do you wind up with 70 Sc Gs in one unit?? How many more are "outstanding" scientists?? This is not just one but almost every DRDO lab.
so, long story short, no engine, full promotion, no tension, full pension, right??
Its the story of every lab and PSU in India.
I am sure that there is a lesson in there deep inside, somewhere, for all of us.
If results were not a big problem, funding would never be the issue.
some alloys you can make, some you can buy, some you cannot make and some you cannot buy. More importantly, don't use pusher type propellers where ordinary everyday type tractor propellers would have worked better, ESPECIALLY when you have an very steep learning curve to deal with.
Big boys take all this into consideration before they start a tough journey.
In the end, its always no tension, full pension.
To truly succeed, one needs relentless, dedicated drive and also hunger and fear gnawing away at the vitals, sometimes one more than the other.
There are the new beginnings of such unheard of characteristics in some aviation PSUs, nowhere else.
These guys bulldoze their way through problems by innovative methods,selfless team work and co opting certification agencies very very early in the design cycle and the end result is foremost in their sights. Its slowly catching on.
Pity, we neither had the amreki hire and fire nor the ruski gulags.
Just like One MODI and and a whole lot of faceless, useless bjp, with the aam aadmi asking vociferously why no second rung leadership is available.
so after decades of effort, it does not matter that 5-6 % is left to complete because the tough part is yet to come and some chaiwallah says wait another 3-4 years and then after that GOK how long before it can actually be put into a fuselage or even hung on a wing??
some lab took more than 24 years to develop a basic UAV and an absolutely stunned foreign audience at some conference just could not believe their ears at the time line disclosed by a famous lab director whose farewell took a full three days of breakfast to dinner celebrations to see him off.
I wonder, at times, if hire and fire or a gulag at the end of the dark tunnel would not have been a better way for us to go.