HAL's copter undergoes cold weather trials

Light Combat Helicopter is of 5.5 tonne class, powered by two Shakti engines and inherits many technical features of the Advanced Light Helicopter

The Hindustan Aeronautics Ld (HAL) on Monday announced that the cold weather trials of the Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) were carried out at the Air Force Station, Leh recently. "The trials covered engine starts with internal batteries after overnight cold soak at 3 km altitude and 4.1 km altitude," said T Suvarna Raju, Chairman, HAL, in a press statement. The engine starts were satisfactory in the temperature of minus 18 degree Celsius at 4.1 km. The flights were also carried out to assess high altitude performance and low speed handling.

The statement said, the LCH prototype, the technology demonstrator 2 (TD2) was ferried from Bengaluru to Leh and the flight trials were carried out involving customer pilots from Air Force and Army, and with the participation of the representatives from Regional Centre for Military Airworthiness and Director General of Aeronautical Quality Assurance.

"Light Combat Helicopter (LCH) Technology Demonstrator TD-3 made its maiden flight in November last year and the TD-4 is likely to fly soon. The IOC (initial operational clearance) is expected in the latter part of this year and to achieve this we are concentrating on building more prototypes and increase the number of flights to reduce the lead-time for IOC," added Raju.

The HAL said, the LCH is of 5.5 tonne class, powered by two Shakti engines and inherits many technical features of the Advanced Light Helicopter. The features that are unique to LCH are sleek and narrow fuselage, tri-cycle crashworthy landing gear, crashworthy and self-sealing fuel tanks, armour protection, nuclear, and low visibility features which make the LCH lethal, agile and survivable.

The forth prototype is currently being built to speed up the trials for certification process.