HAL Tejas fighter jet : India’s first Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas inducted in IAF today on January 11, 2010. The HAL Tejas is a light weight multirole jet fighter being developed by India. It is a tailless, compound delta wing design powered by a single engine. Originally known as the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA)—a designation which continues in popular usage—the aircraft was officially named “Tejas” by then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Checkout here for some details about HAL India’s first Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas or Tejas fighter jet.
Defence Minister A K Antony handed over the service certificate of the world’s smallest military aircraft to Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal P V Naik in the presence of top defence and government officials.
“This is the first time an indigenously designed and developed military fighter aircraft has been certified for air force operations,” state-run Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) official K Jayaprakash Rao said.
The IOC involves specific process, including validation tests to determine the aircraft’s various operational functions including avionics, subsystems, thrust, aerodynamics, propulsion and radar.
The certificate was given by the Regional Centre for Military Airworthiness (RCMA) of the Centre for Military Airworthiness and Certification (Cemilac), a lab of the defence research organisation.
The IAF is reported to have a requirement for 200 single-seat and 20 two-seat conversion trainers, while the Indian Navy may order up to 40 single-seaters to replace its Sea Harrier FRS.51 and Harrier T.60. During its sea level flight trials off Goa, Tejas notched a speed of over 1,350 km per hour, thus becoming the second supersonic fighter manufactured indigenously by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited after the HAL Marut
The ADA and HAL conducted 1,500 test flights involving 11 aircraft, including five prototypes in the past decade, after its maiden flight Jan 4, 2001 as a technology demonstrator.
Under the limited series production, HAL is manufacturing eight aircraft for clearance flights and will take up the air force’s initial order to deliver 20 jets to form the first Tejas squadron. It will be based at the Sulur air base near Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu.
The IAF has also placed an additional order in 2010 for 20 more Tejas for the second squadron to be raised at Kayathir near Tuticorin in the southern state where the air force is setting up a new base this decade.
Tags: hal tejas, tejas aircraftView the original article here
0 Responses to Tejas fighter jet : India’s first Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas inducted in IAF