Naval LCA makes first flight from ski-jump

A giant leap for Indian Naval Aviation

In a defining moment for Indian Naval Aviation, the first prototype (NP1) of Naval Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), the first indigenously designed and developed 4th plus generation combat aircraft designed to operate from the decks of air-craft carriers, had a successful first flight from ski-jump facility of shore-based test facility at INS Hansa in Goa on Saturday.

Piloted by Commodore Jaideep Maolankar, the Chief Test Pilot of National Flight Test Centre, the aircraft had a perfect flight with results matching the predicted ones to the letter.

LCA (Navy) is designed with stronger landing gears to absorb forces exerted by the ski jump ramp during take-off, to be airborne within 200m as against 1000m required for normal runways. Its special flight control law mode allows hands-free take-off relieving the pilot workload, as the aircraft leaps from the ramp and automatically puts the aircraft in an ascending trajectory. Dr. Avinash Chander, Director General DRDO, congratulated the LCA Navy program team and said, “With today’s copybook flight of LCA-Navy from the land based ski-jump facility we see our own indigenous combat aircrafts soon flying from the decks of our aircraft carriers.”

“The maiden successful picture perfect launch of NP1is a testimony to the tremendous efforts put in by scientists and engineers to design the Naval aircraft, its simulator [that helps pilots to know well in advance how the aircraft will behave on ski jump] and the flight test team that timed the whole event to near perfection,” a Defence Ministry press release said.

It can be stated with conviction: “The indigenous Indian Naval Carrier Borne Aviation program has been launched, literally from the Ski-Jump,” the statement added. The NP1 will be more of a technology demonstrator and the Navy is waiting for LCA-2, with a more powerful engine, for operational deployment, Navy sources informed.

The Shore Based Test Facility has been created to replicate the aircraft carrier with a ski jump for take-off and arresting gear cable for arrested landing by Aeronautical Development Agency with the participation of the Indian Navy, Goa shipyard and Indian Navy with Russian agencies providing the design support and specialised equipment.