BENGALURU: The National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL), a Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) lab, on Friday said that over the last three decades, it has developed many critical technologies for the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas and that it continues to support the programme.

Pointing out that composites offer an attractive option in modern aircraft development given that they are lighter, have better mechanical properties, are fatigue insensitive and corrosion resistant as compared to aluminium alloys, NAL said composite structures in LCA contribute to 45% by weight making it one of the world’s smallest lightweight fighter aircraft.

“KN Raju, former CSIR-NAL director, successfully led the national team for composite wing development. Our advanced composites division (ACD) has pioneered design & development of composite structures using innovative and cost-effective manufacturing technologies including co-curing/co-bonding constructions,” NAL said.

The ACD, it said, has played a pivotal role in the development of the fin & rudder, wing spars, wing fuselage fairings, fairings blocks, centre fuselage parts & under carriage doors.

“The innovative technologies developed by CSIR-NAL not only reduces the cost but also improves the structural efficiency by minimising the number of mechanical joints. The innovations have resulted in more than 20% savings in cost and 25% reduction in weight,” NAL added.

In a statement issued on Friday, NAL said: “CSIR-NAL has a tie-up with Tata Advanced Systems Ltd (formerly TAML), for supply of critical CFC components for the series production (SP) of LCA.”

Supply of critical components has been completed for the first batch of 20 aircraft (SP1-20) to initial operational clearance (IOC) standard in 2019 and supply of components to final operational clearance (FOC) standard is under progress for next batch of 20 aircrafts (SP 21 – 40) and is expected to be completed by October 2022. The ACD has handheld TASL and ensured that parts have been delivered meeting the stringent timelines.

Quality assurance support for the said programmes has been provided by NAL. As TASL has now matured into a production partner, HAL, in concurrence with NAL, has placed an order on TASL for supplies for a value of Rs 220 crore.

Further, HAL has requested for transfer of technology (ToT) for the fin and rudder and the proposal by NAL is awaiting approval from HAL Board.

“The composite manufacturing technologies that have been developed by CSIR-NAL during the technology denial regime has helped the country in developing a 4+ generation fighter. This has led to India being one of the top seven countries with capability to design, develop and produce a world class fighter thus saving a huge FE for the country from imports of LCA class aircraft. It would be apt to state that without these weight reduction technologies, LCA might never have taken to the skies!” the statement added.

Aside from this, NAL spoke about various other achievements, including its OCTA COPTER, a drone, the SARAS-Mk2, Open Air Engine Test Bed, Aircraft Environmental Systems Ground Test Facility (AESGTF) and its High Fidelity Real Time Flight Simulator.