LCA makes maiden engagement with indigenous arrester hook

Bengaluru: The Naval variant of light combat aircraft (LCA) 'Tejas' successfully undertook its maiden taxi-in engagement with the indigenously developed arrester hook system, used to stop jets during landings on aircraft carrier decks, state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) said on Thursday.

The LCA Naval Prototype 2 (NP2), piloted by Capt Shivnath Dahiya, safely executed the first contact of the arrest or hook system, developed by the HAL, at moderate taxi-in speeds on the Navy's shore-based test facility INS Hansa in Goa.

The first successful taxi-in engagement was monitored closely by the Landing Signal Officer commodore J A Maolankar and Test director Group Capt A Kabadwal (Retd), the Bengaluru-based HAL said in a release.

"This is the first of a series of engagement planned at proving the arrestor hook capability," HAL CMD T Suvarna Raju said.

HAL said its design wing, Aircraft Research and Design Centre has designed and developed the arrestor hook system for ship deck operations of LCA's Naval version.

The aircraft had been operating at INS Hansa Goa since July 28 after verification of the in-air operation of the system here earlier this month, the release said.

The company also said carrier compatibility trials of the Naval aircraft are slated to be carried out at the shore-based test facility. The trial involves completion of extensive shore-based trials before embarking on actual deck.

Teams of HAL, Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), the Centre for Military Airworthiness & Certification (CEMILAC), Regional Director Aeronautical Quality Assurance (RDAQA), Navy and National Flight Test Centre (NFTC) have worked synergistically to achieve this "flawless result", the release added.