TEJAS LCA

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 TEJAS LCA

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• The Tejas, or ‘radiance’, is an indigenous light combat fighter aircraft (LCA) jointly developed by Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL)
• It is the smallest lightweight, multi-role, single-engine tactical fighter aircraft in the world and is being developed in single-seat fighter and twin seat trainer variants for the Indian Air Force and Indian Navy
• Tejas is a Light Combat Aircraft that uses fourth generation technologies. It is an aerodynamically unstable tailless compound delta-wing configuration, optimised primarily for manoeuvrability and agility. Unstable aircraft provides high maneuverability which is the essential and most important conditions for Fighter planes. A stable plane has low maneuverability which makes the plane vulnerable.
• In the early eighties, it was realised that no organisation existed which had the total capability to develop such an aircraft all on its own. The last time an indigenous fighter aircraft, the HF 24 flew was in 1961. 
• Since then, the HF 24 assembly line had been shut down and the design team had been wound up. The only way was to develop from scratch.
• To accomplish these goals, the government of India in 1984 decided to establish the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) to manage the LCA programme. Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, (HAL) was to be the principal partner with participation of various DRDO & CSIR Laboratories, Public & private sector industries and academic institutions.
• The LCA design was finalised in 1990 as a small tail-less delta winged machine with relaxed static stability (RSS) to enhance maneuverability performance and a host of other advanced features.
• The use of composites in the LCA resulted in a 40% reduction in the total number of parts compared to using a metallic frame. Furthermore, the number of fasteners has been reduced by half in the composite structure from the 10,000 that would have been required in a metallic frame design. The composite design also helped to avoid about 2,000 holes being drilled into the airframe. Overall, the aircraft's weight is lowered by 21%. 

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