rediff.com: LCA: Another success story by Indian scientists

The successful maiden flight of the prototype of the Light Combat Aircraft Thursday marks yet another success for Indian scientists who worked for 15 years on the project to build the indigenous fighter aircraft, battling against all odds, including sanctions.

The Rs 30 billion LCA project entered 'the phase of definition' in 1986 and received the government's nod in 1993, overcoming problems posed by the 1992 Forex crunch and sanctions following the series of nuclear explosions in Pokhran.

India's LCA programme was plagued by technical uncertainties and cost overruns due to these developments. It was characterised by delays for almost every vital component of the aircraft and reportedly compelled the Indian Air Force to seek interim measures to cover the aircraft shortfall by upgrading MiG 21 fighters.

The LCA was originally expected to begin replacing the MiG 21s which form the backbone of the IAF, by the late 1990s.

The efforts of the 1,600 scientists and engineers involved in the LCA project can be compared to those of the scientists who strove to give the IAF the first suitable home-built fighter aircraft in the 1960s, the Marut.

The Marut was considered a robust fighter aircraft with extremely good visibility for the pilot, and aerodynamically one of the best in its time.

The Marut was conceived to meet an air staff requirement of a multi-role aircraft suitable for both high-altitude interception and low-level ground attack.

The specified performance attributes called for a speed of Mach 2.0 at altitude, a ceiling of 60,000 feet (18,290 m) and a combat radius of 500 miles (805 km).

With the national slogan at the time being 'self-reliance', the aviation industry, spearheaded by Hindustan Aircraft Limited (now Hindustan Aeronautics Limited), took up the challenge of answering the IAF's need for a homemade multi-role fighter aircraft during the mid-1950s.

The building of HF-24 or Marut (Spirit of the Tempest), as this aircraft was to be called, was the first attempt of its kind anywhere outside the developed world.

In 1955, no infrastructure capable of supporting such a programme existed in India. The Hindustan Aircraft complex lacked even a suitable runway from which the new aircraft could begin flight testing. The entire infrastructure had to be built and organised from scratch. So the scientists working on the project were battling stiff odds.

By the time the first prototype of the Marut commenced its flight test programme in 1961, Hindustan Aircraft employed some German design engineers, set up a design department with 100-odd personnel, a prototype shop with supervisors, and a production engineering department.

No hangar space was available for the construction of prototypes, no machine shop existed for prototype engineering, and there were no test equipment, structural test rigs or a flight test laboratory.

However, after a comprehensive three-month ground test programme, HF-001, flew for the first time in June 1961, followed by it's first official flight a week later.

The aircraft was inducted into the IAF in April 1967, and subsequently, the aircraft was progressively modified after it became clear that the IAF intended to employ it actively.

As circumstances would have it, the focus of the air staff requirement shifted to having a 'suitable tactical attack and strike aircraft and 'a deep penetration and strike aircraft' by mid-80s. This could be fulfilled only with the induction of foreign-built aircraft like Jaguars and MiG 23s. The result: the Marut programme was no longer considered viable.

Scientists and engineers, working on the LCA project, are in a better position than their counterparts who toiled on Marut and had to wind it up later, as the aircraft could not be adapted to the changing requirements, resulting in the IAF preferring foreign built aircraft.

However, the digital technology used in LCA provides flexible adaptability for future changing needs.


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