Pramesh S Jain
ome of the uniqueness of the aircraft is as follows:
• One of the smallest & lightest aircraft in its class.
• Excellent flight safety record.
• Available in all four variants to meet all customer needs.
• Composite constitute 90% by area & 45% by weight.
• Supersonic at all altitude with minimalistic RCS.
• Quad-redundant fly by wire aircraft.
• Payload carrying capacity upto 30% of AUW (all up weight).
• Open architecture enabling customized weapon integration.
• Maintenance friendly with low operating cost.
Aero India is a biennial aero show and aviation exhibition being held in Bengaluru at Yelhanka Air Force Station from 13th to 17th Feb 2023.The show is organized by the Ministry of Defence.
It is one of the biggest aero show of Asia.As manifest by its theme The Runway to a Billion Opportunities.
Aero India provides a platform to various national and international aerospace and defence companies to showcase their advanced products& Capabilities to explore the business opportunities.
A full scale LCA-Tejas aircraft in Final Operational Clearance (FOC) configuration will be at the center stage of “India Pavilion” at Aero India 2023.
The 14th Edition of Aero India will have a separate “India Pavilion” which is based on Fixed Wing Platform theme to show case India growth in the fixed wing area including the future prospects for the same.
India Pavilion will further showcase the growth of India in developing an eco-system for Fixed Wing platform which includes the demonstrating of various structural modules,simulators,systems (LRUs) etc of LCA-Tejas aircraft being produced by Private Partners.
There will also be a section for Defence space,New Technologies and a UAV section which will give an insight about the growth of India in each sector.
LCA Tejas is a single engine,light weight,highly agile, multi-role supersonic fighter.It has quadruplex digital fly-by-wire Flight Control System (FCS) with associated advanced flight control laws.
The aircraft with delta wing is designed for ‘air combat’ and ‘offensive air support’ with ‘reconnaissance’ and ‘anti-ship’ as its secondary roles.
Extensive use of advanced composites in the airframe gives a high strength to weight ratio,long fatigue life and low radar signatures.
Tejas is equipped with state of the art features like glass cockpit, zero-zero ejection seat,inflight refueling probe, Jam proof AESA Radar,UEWS with SPJ,CMDS, HMDS DashV, BVR missile capability and many more which make the aircraft more lethal.
LCA has come a long way in terms of development and presently available in Air Force fighter & twin seater and LCA Navy fighter and twin seater.
Other variants like LCA LIFT (Lead in fighter trainer) and MK-2 is being developed for LCA Tejas.