New Delhi:As the indigenously developed Light Combat Aircraft Tejas was formally inducted into the Indian Air Force today, it was a proud moment for the CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories(CSIR-NAL) that developed vital elements for the aircraft.

The NAL, a Bengaluru based laboratory under the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), a premier body under the Ministry of Science and Technology (S&T), developed vital elements for the aircraft like designing, developing and certifying the fly-by-wire flight control laws, algorithms and and fabricated composite structures for the LCA, CSIR officials said.

The technology developed at CSIR-NAL not only reduces the cost but also improves the structural efficiency of the aircraft by minimising the number of mechanical joints.

With this innovation, composite aircraft structures have become cost effective and structurally far superior to conventional aircraft structures. It may be noted that Tejas airframe is 45 per cent composites (mostly carbon-epoxy) by weight contributing to its reputation as the world’s smallest light weight fighter aircraft, the officials said.

This also makes it very agile and light while the fly-by-wire, a semi-automatic and computer-regulated system for controlling the flight of an aircraft or spacecraft which makes it a 4.5 generation plane.

The National Control Law (CLAW) team had implemented the autopilot modes, simulation and modelling, including wake encounter simulation and advanced parameter identification techniques for flight validation/update of the aerodynamic database leading to safe flight envelope expansion for LCA air force variants.

Another notable contribution by the CSIR-NAL has been the development of aircraft 6-degree- of-freedom simulation technology, which is a key requirement for Control Law development.

The CSIR-NAL team also piloted real-time assessments in simulator. The Engineer- in-loop Simulator (ELS) is a friendly real-time simulator and a single window projection based facility developed at CSIR-NAL.

PTI