Latest Indian MKI aircraft facing problems

Indianfighter said:

The concept of BWB may not be revolutionary or new, but the fact remains that the world's first combat jet to have a BWB design is the LCA. Also, the F-22 is not a BWB design, but a conventional design with separate wings, forward and mid-fuselages.

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you seem to be confused. A BWB design refers to the aerodynamic configuration shown here:





The LCA structural design you refer to cannot be considered a BWB. I admit I am not very knowledgable on the LCA, but I have seen pictures and read a bit on it--no one has claimed it is a BWB design as is apparent from any pic



not that I doubt its structural design is advanced, maybe it is even the first of its kind as you say, but it is no BWB:

walter said:

you seem to be confused. A BWB design refers to the aerodynamic configuration shown here:

[qimg]http://www.sphynx.de/assets/images/b-bwb_xg.jpg[/qimg]

[qimg]http://www.aeronautics.ru/img/img006/bwb_tanker_001.jpg[/qimg]

The LCA structural design you refer to cannot be considered a BWB. I admit I am not very knowledgable on the LCA, but I have seen pictures and read a bit on it--no one has claimed it is a BWB design as is apparent from any pic

[qimg]http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/Images/Current/LCA/LCA1.jpg[/qimg]

not that I doubt its structural design is advanced, maybe it is even the first of its kind as you say, but it is no BWB:

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Its definately not a BWB but it is a relatively decent fighter from India though its taking a heck of a long time to get it operational and bring it into service; I wonder what kinda of problems the Indian technical staffs are suffering to have caused such a delay taking into consideration that a considerable amount of the aircraft program was subcontracted out to foreign companies or worked in tandem with foreign countries. When will it become operational and inducted into the IAF?

Look carefully.

walter, by BWB you were probably refering to the "flying wing" concept of aircraft such as B-2 bombers, whereas I was refering to the fuselage being fused with the wing instead of being separate parts. I refeed to the following statement in the article prviously posted by me : Unlike the traditional "tube and wing" design in which wings are attached to a fuselage, the blended-wing body merges the fuselage with the wing.

The LCA's airframe has an implementation that has not been replicated anywhere in the world :

The fin for the LCA is a monolithic honeycomb piece. No other manufacturer is known to have made fins out of a single piece. The cost of manufacture is reduced by 80 per cent from Rs 2.5 million in this process. This is contrary to a subtractive or deductive method normally adopted in advanced countries, when the shaft is carved out of a block of titanium alloy by a computerized numerically controlled machine. A 'nose' for the rudder is added by 'squeeze' riveting.

Source:


The LCA is thus, the first fused single-fin aircraft in the world, and not fused fuselage-wing as I was mistakenly refering to earlier. Anyway, the line drawings shown by jatt do suggest that part of the wing is a continuation of the fuselage. This may be the concept of double-sweep delta-wing but it is not a new implementation.

I wonder what kinda of problems the Indian technical staffs are suffering to have caused such a delay taking into consideration that a considerable amount of the aircraft program was subcontracted out to foreign companies or worked in tandem with foreign countries. When will it become operational and inducted into the IAF?

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There are no problems in the LCA program onsidering that the test-flight of the LCA takes place 2-3 times every week. On 5th June, it completed 532 test-flights.

According to HAL, the PV-3 version and the Naval prototype are expected in the next few months.
The first LCA is expected to be inducted into the IAF before the end of this year.

jatt said:

Look carefully.
[qimg]http://www.aerospaceweb.org/aircraft/fighter/lca/lca_schem_01.gif[/qimg]
[qimg]http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/Images/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=570&g2_serialNumber=2[/qimg]
[qimg]http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/Images/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=644&g2_serialNumber=2[/qimg]

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What should I be looking carefully for here? --a BWB design? The LCA is not a BWB design as anyone knowledgable in aeronautics can attest to. If anyone thinks it is, then so are the F-16, Rafael and countless other fighters. In reality none of them are considered BWB designs.

As Indianfighter said, I was referring to designs that resemble flying wings, although strictly speaking a BWB design is not considered a flying wing. A B-2 is also not quite a BWB. In a flying wing design, by definition there is no fuselage. Compartments for cargo, people or anything else are desinged into a wing, hence a flying wing. A BWB design in contrast is more than just a wing. As the name implies the body (fuselage) is blended to a very high degree with the wings, but it is still discernable as a separate element from the wing. Compartements for people and cargo would be built into the main body which consists of the fuselage part and the inboard wing areas where the fuselage blends with the wing.
.

jatt said:

Look carefully.
[qimg]http://www.aerospaceweb.org/aircraft/fighter/lca/lca_schem_01.gif[/qimg]
[qimg]http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/Images/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=570&g2_serialNumber=2[/qimg]
[qimg]http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/IAF/Images/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=644&g2_serialNumber=2[/qimg]

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I dont know, looks similar to a mirage design or even a miniature version of the F-16XL model. ******************Don't even dare to bring Jf-17 to this discussion. There is own threads for that plane************

walter said:

A BWB design in contrast is more than just a wing. As the name implies the body (fuselage) is blended to a very high degree with the wings, but it is still discernable as a separate element from the wing. Compartements for people and cargo would be built into the main body which consists of the fuselage part and the inboard wing areas where the fuselage blends with the wing.
.

Click to expand...

The above statements are an accurate description of a BWB design.
The main advantage of such a design would be significant reduction in weight as mentioned in the news report (probably due to less number of joints and rivets).


Top Gun Kalam completes historic Sukhoi sortie
Press Trust Of India
Posted Thursday , June 08, 2006 at 11:24

Pune: President A P J Abdul Kalam undertook a historic sortie in Indian Air Force's latest supersonic fighter aircraft, the Sukhoi-30 MKI, from Lohegaon airbase on Thursday morning.

Kalam, the Supreme Commander of armed forces, undertook the 30-minute sortie in latest all-weather air dominance supersonic fighter.

Wing Commander Ajay Rathore, Commanding Officer of the SU-30 MKI squadron flew the President who donned the G-suit before boarding the aircraft.

He was also given specific flight instructions by the senior Air Force officials.

Kalam had arrived at the Air Force Base early on Thursday morning and was accorded a ceremonial guard of honour by the Air Warriors of the Lightning squadron tarmac.

He was received by Air Marshal Ajit Bhavnani, Vice Chief of Air Staff Air Marshal P K Mehta, Air Officer Commanding in-Chief, South Western Air Command (SWAC) and Air Commodore M Banerjee, Air Officer Commanding Air Force Base, Pune.

With this sky sojourn, Kalam’s became ndia's oldest citizen to fly an Indian Air Force fighter plane.

He is also India's first president to have visited jawans in world's highest battlefield Siachen and also the first Indian president to have sailed underwater in a Navy submarine.

Source:

Indigenous titanium tubes for LCA

HYDERABAD: India on Thursday joined a select group of nations, with the handing over of the first batch of indigenously made titanium half alloy tubes, critical components in the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), to Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) at a function here.

The tubes, developed by the Nuclear Fuel Complex (NFC) were handed over by Atomic Energy Commission Chairman Anil Kakodkar to Dipankar Banerjee, Chief Controller (R and D), DRDO on the occasion of NFC Day. The tubes were made in collaboration with Aeronautical Development Agency and Research Centre for Military Airworthiness (RCMA).

Dr. Kakodkar also released thorium oxide Certified Reference Materials (CRMs), developed by the NFC. Thorium oxide is used as fuel for Advanced Heavy Water Reactors in the third stage of the country's nuclear power programme.

........

Mr. Banerjee told presspersons that the initial operation clearance, involving integration of weapons, sensors and multimode radar for the LCA, would be completed by 2008. A production facility for the LCA had been set up at HAL, Bangalore, with an initial capacity to make eight aircraft a year. The first aircraft would roll out in three to four months. The indigenously made titanium half alloy tubes would replace the imported ones in the future aircraft.

He said the IAF had placed an order for 20 single-seater LCAs (one squadron).

NFC General Manager M. Narayana Rao told The Hindu that the U.S., U.K., France, Russia and Germany were the countries that possessed the technology required for titanium half alloy tubing. It was a key component for the LCA, as the tubes were used for hydraulic power transmission. Titanium half alloy tubes also have space applications and they would be used in the Geo-synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle.

Source:

HAL designing new attack helicopter​

Date: 9/6/2006
Agency: Daily India

New Delhi: Aircraft major Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) said Friday it was designing a new attack helicopter and development of a home grown jet fighter was proceeding on schedule.

'It'll be a dedicated light attack helicopter. It's a brand new design,' HAL chairman Ashok Baveja told reporters on the sidelines of a defence awards function here.

'Work has started in (HAL headquarters) Bangalore. We are already seven-eight months into the project,' he added.

'The prototype will be rolled out two years from now. The cycle time (from designing to rollout) will be less because now we're getting more experience in this,' Baveja said.

Asked how the Indian version would compare with those flying worldwide, he stated: 'Comparisons? There are none whatsoever.':nono:

.......

Baveja said that the development of the indigenous Tejas light combat aircraft (LCA) was proceeding on schedule and denied there had been delays in integrating the fighter's weapons systems.

Source:
See post below!

The ACTUAL URL source of the ABOVE Post is this, not some fake news agency run by a Hindu heretic: