LCA Tejas crosses another milestone with successful hot weather trials

Nagpur: India's prestigious indigenously produced Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) programme crossed another milestone when it successfully kicked off its hot weather trials programme with a flight between the airfields of Bangalore and Nagpur. Defence sources said Friday that the programme got underway yesterday with a flawless ferry flight of the LCA's  Prototype Vehicle-3 (PV-3), which was the first operational ferry flight of the Tejas with external drop tanks.

Drop tanks are intended to enhance the range/radius of action of aircraft, the defence release said.

In the event, the fuel system functioned perfectly, paving the way for more such long range ferry flight and out-station trials. The LCA was ferried from Bangalore to Nagpur in about an hour's flying time and reached the destination with more than adequate fuel.

Over the next one week, the release said, the aircraft would be subjected to hot soaks on the ground followed by representative flight profiles at low and medium attitudes to check proper functioning of all on-board systems under conditions of extreme heat which prevails in Nagpur.

The successful completion of these trials would thus mark a significant step towards attainment of all important initial operational clearance (IOC) and subsequent induction into the squadron service with the Indian Air Force, the release added. 

In August-September, the aircraft will be taken to Jaisalmer for weapon trials, while the cold weather trials will be conducted next year.