dimanche 29 juin 2008
Second of Indian Limited Series Production aircraft “TEJAS” makes maiden flight
Monday, June 16th, 2008 |
The
much-awaited maiden flight of Tejas LSP-2 took place today at HAL
airport Bangalore. Even though the aircraft was ready for its maiden
flight last week itself, the flight could not take place because of the
pre-monsoon weather prevailing over Bangalore. The flight was conducted
by National Flight Test Centre (NFTC) of Aeronautical Development
Agency (ADA).
The aircraft was flown by NFTC test pilot Wg Cdr N Tiwari. As has
been the practice, the maiden flight of this aircraft was chased by
another Tejas aircraft PV3, piloted by Wg Cdr RR Tyagi. The test was
conducted from NFTC’s telemetry station, with Wg Cdr M Prabhu, flight
test engineer, as the test director. Today’s maiden flight of LSP2 was
significant on several accounts.
This is the second limited series production aircraft that rolled out
of the LSP hangar of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. This is also the
first aircraft powered by the new GE404-IN20 engine and also has a new
ejection seat version, the Martin Baker Mk 16LG. The IN20 engine has
several improved features over the GE404-F2J3 engines that have been
powering the previous Tejas prototypes, like the Full Authority Digital
Engine Control (FADEC), increased thrust and life. The aircraft to be
delivered to the IAF and Indian Navy will have this engine and hence,
this is an important step towards achieving Initial Operational
Capability (IOC) and further induction of the aircraft into the IAF and
Indian Navy.
The flight lasted 43 minutes wherein it covered an altitude of 9.5
km and a speed of 1.1 Mach. This is the second time that a Tejas
aircraft has flown supersonic in its very first flight. The tests for
the specific flight covered engine handling and check out of aircraft
systems within the envelope flown. All the aircraft systems performed
well and all the test objectives were fully achieved.
Special thanks to http://frontierindia.net
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