LCA makes maiden engagement with indegenous arrester hook

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

The LCA Naval Prototype 2 (NP2), piloted by CaptShivnath Dahiya safely executed the first contact of thearrestor hook system, developed by the HAL, at moderate taxi-inspeeds on the Navy's shore based test facility INSHansa in Goa.

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

"This is the first of a series of engagement plannedat proving the arrestor hook capability," HAL CMD T SuvarnaRaju said.

HAL said its design wing, Aircraft Research and Design Centre has designed and developed the arrestor hooksystem 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 trialsof the Naval aircraft are slated to be carried out at the shore based test facility. The trial involves completion of extensive shore based trialsbefore 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.