India's Light Combat Aircraft which is the world's smallest, light weight supersonic fighter has successfully completed its first block of flights. The maiden flight of the LCA TD1 was on 4 Jan 2001.
It flew on 9 Feb 2001 at Aero India 2001, the International Air show held at Bangalore. This was probably the first time in the history of fighter development that a fighter aircraft prototype on only its fourth flight has participated in an International Air Show.
Though it was originally estimated to take 15 flights to complete the test plan, the task was completed in 11 flights only. Including the flight at Aero India all the 12 flights were completed with
flawless precision without any incident whatsoever. While the first six flights were flown by Wg Cdr Rajiv Kothiyal, the next six flights were flown by Wg Cdr Raghunath Nambiar. The tests covered landings with and without use of brake parachute, gentle manoeuvres upto 2.5 g, left and right rolls Handling Qualities (HQ) tests, climb upto 8 kms, formation flights, tower fly by test, PID manoeuvres, neutral point estimation, air data calibration and a host of system related tests.
The LCA TD1 behaved extremely well and all test objectives were fully met. Both pilots were very pleased with the Handling Qualities of the aircraft.
Successfully completion of the first block of flight tests in less than five months compares very well with the best achieved anywhere in the world. The aircract has demonstrated its soundness of design and completion of the test schedule was the result of good planning and flawless execution by the LCA team. It is a feather in the cap of the
LCA project and augurs well for the future.
