While i take this opportunity to congratulate the entire fraternity (ADA, ADE, ASTE, HAL) on achieving a huge milestone in self sufficiency,i must also caution one and all, not to rest on past laurels. It is well known that this aircraft will replace the MiG-21( flying coffin).Just to put things in perspective, let me share with those who are not yet aware that China has already unveiled its fifth generation fighter aircraft (FGFA), the Chengdu J-20,which, some people say, will give serious competition to the only FGFA currently in service, the F-22 Raptor. Whereas we in 2011,are very happy to announce a joint venture for developing a FGFA with Russia.Naturally this one is not expected to fly anytime before 2031.See what i mean....
Ofcourse the first step is always hardest. Once we have developed one fully operational indigenous fighter, we can always play around and develop variants of better order.
This Light Aircraft will lay the foundations for developing a Medium and Heavy class fighter aircraft. And we can always add more technologies to it. Fro example, we can make it stealthy or add more weapons etc.
The main thing is developing the industrial base for innovations and keeping them hungry for money by showing them bags of money and asking for more and more technologically advanced weapons. Thats how west has done it. And thats the way we should be doing it. Western model of success - Greed is the mother of all inventions.
Re: Well done India! We are moving in the right direction!
by Varun on Jan 24, 2011 02:56 PM
Couldnt agree more. They also had to go slow and prevent any accidents during test phases as irresponsible india media would write its death notes.
Having worked on some subsystems of the Tejas. I can say it was a great learning experience. We made lot of mistakes. Luckily the plane flies and is one of the best in class. The 5th gen fighter with Russia will be a great experience. After that it is going to be all Unmanned fighters. So We need to set up a ecosystem of satellites to guide our unmanned assets. Depending on the Russian is OK for the short term. It is not about trusting Russians and Israelis. They can be trusted. It is like our space program a foolproof cheque against blackmail from our "friendly" neighbours.
Re: Re: Greate Achievement
by sameer pandita on Jan 24, 2011 03:10 PM
Wait Mr Jayaprakash Engines dont fly on their own do they . They are working on kaveri .They will have an answer shortly as it has been tested in Russia though at a part capacity only .The tests show that it does work .
"In 1993, ADA felt the aircraft may fly by 1999. But when the project was in the last lap, India conducted another nuclear test in 1998 which invited the ire and severe sanctions from the West."
This simply shows how indegenous are these planes. This is just a minor milestone. Our next target should be to produce 6th generation aircraft 100% truly Indian in 10 times lesser cycle time.
Re: How much Indian?
by Batao Na on Jan 24, 2011 02:24 PM
See the whole picture they had to build whole ecosystem right from an M.Tech course in IIT to the industry that can build component. The engines are not desi.
Dude if you see even Eurofighter Typhoon uses external engine.
Even commercial Boeing and Airbus uses either Rolls Royce or Pratt and Whitney jet engines.
India designed first Car engine in 1998 for Indica leave alone aircraft engine. All the engines prior to this were foreign design
Re: How much Indian?
by ajay raul on Jan 24, 2011 02:35 PM
Making something new from scratch is not one day task... It takes decades to set up framework, once the framework is ready you can scale it up to higher level. for us the framework building has just tsrated (due to lack of R&D capabilities & lack of political intrest). It'll take time but I am sure India will excel one day in Aviation engineering.
Re: Re: How much Indian?
by M X on Jan 24, 2011 03:03 PM
Its true making fighter aircraft is not like to make toy plan, Before we ware not able to made indigenous CAR. but today we are talking about Fighter Aircraft
These r the talents which r to be encouraged instead of clinging to Foreign collaborations and Foreign know-how like parasites draining out our finance to foreign countries like Russia to thrive at our cost. It took more than 6 decades to have our own indigenous aircraft that too still its Engine is of foreign origin. The Political govts.instead of concentrating on their Party Politics throughout their tenures, better show patriotic fervour in encouraging indigenous dependence
