The naval variant of the home-grown Light Combat Aircraft is at a striking distance from undertaking the much-awaited maiden landing and take-off on board the Indian Navy’s aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya.
The Indian Navy is currently studying all the data before giving the go-ahead to the team to undertake deck landing on the INS Vikramaditya.
According to military sources who are part of this “extremely complex” mission, the ‘test pilots’ who are part of the naval LCA campaign in Goa have made several approaches to INS Vikramaditya in the last one month. This was part of the team’s (comprising ADA, HAL, NFTC and Indian Navy) campaign from the Shore-Based Test Facility (SBTF) in Goa.
The SBTF simulates an aircraft carrier with ski-jump and arrested recovery facilities. It’s a recreation of an aircraft carrier on the shore. The SBTF in Goa replicates a static model of the Indigenous Aircraft Carrier (INS Vikrant) being built at the Cochin Shipyard in Kerala.
“NLCA has done quite a few wave-offs at INS Vikramaditya near Karwar shore to assess the winds and deck effects for carrier landing. We are only waiting for the go-ahead from the Indian Navy that will enable the aircraft to land on the carrier. The ‘test pilots’ are confident now and they have done a marvellous job,” says an official.
Once, the naval LCA lands and takes off from INS Vikramaditya, India will become the sixth nation after Russia, US, France, UK and China to have mastered the art of an arrested landing and ski-jump take-off on the deck of a carrier.
Arrested landing deploys a cable on the aircraft carrier before the aircraft is about to land. While landing, the aircraft will deploy an arrester hook, which, in turn, will get attached to the cable. This will arrest or bring the aircraft to a halt within the available short distance on the carrier (about 95m).
In a ski-jump take-off, the aircraft takes off using the assistance of a curved ramp that is sloped upward. Here, the aircraft achieves the required upward lift despite short runway and gains speed in the air.
The flight test team includes Commodore J.A. Maolankar, Captain Shivnath Dahiya, Commodore J.D. Raturi and Commander Ankur Jain. The pilots have completed close to 30 arrested landings and more than 50 ski-jump take-offs at SBTF ahead of approaching the aircraft carrier.
Both naval LCA prototypes NP-1 (trainer) and NP-2 (fighter) were part of the campaign in Goa. The NP-1 did its first arrested landing at SBTF on September 13.
Difficult tasks
The arrested landings at SBTF have not been undertaken only with straight-in approaches, but also under various loading conditions and with roll and yaw.
“In some cases the NLCA was intentionally banked up to 5 degrees before landing, which is very extreme. This bank angle was generated to simulate the roll of the carrier. In some ways, arrested landings and ski-jump take-off on SBTF are much more difficult than on the actual carrier due to the lack of headwind, despite the ship motion being absent. The ship can generate a guaranteed headwind of 15 to 20 knots by its forward motion,” explains an official.
“Two pilots from the test team have close to 30-plus approaches to INS Vikramaditya during the recent campaign. The pilots flew very close over the ship deck. The approaches were to understand the characteristics and controllability of the aircraft,” the official said.
