After being involved in the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) project since its inception in the 1980s, five former aeronautical scientists are now back under one roof to work on the LCA Mark 2.
After being involved in the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) project since its inception in the 1980s, five former aeronautical scientists are now back under one roof to work on the LCA Mark 2.
Nihar Samantara, MK Govind, R Jayaraman, P Jayasimha and A Mohan who had contributed to developing different components on the LCA Mark 1 aircraft as scientists at the Defence Research and Development Organisation and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, are now part of Ignis Aerospace and Design Private Limited, the only private firm in the country with this expertise. The Bangalore-based aerospace company has been working on the meshing for the LCA Mark 2 and the Computational Fluid Analysis of the aircraft.
“The LCA Mark 2 will feature a more powerful engine and refined aerodynamics. When the engine changes the air intake, the structure also changes. For the LCA Mark 2 project, Ignis is helping discretising the geometry in the form of multi block structured overlapping mesh.
This would help for Computational Fluid Analysis of the aircraft,” Nihar Samantara, the CEO of Ignis group of companies said.
He added that the task entrusted to the team by the Aeronautical Development Agency, the nodal agency for the indigenous aircraft project, would be complete in three weeks.
Samantara, who designed and developed the wings of LCA by Carbon Fibre Composite said that his team, comprising MK Govind, who was in charge of the avionics and electronics system, R Jayaraman, who developed the critical fly-by-wire flight control system, P Jayasimha, former head of the aerodynamics team for the LCA project, and A Mohan, a specialist in the field of aircraft structures, is unique for a private firm.
“This field has zero-tolerance for error. I was keeping a tab on the scientists retiring from the defence PSUs and roped these four into my core team. They are second to none in their fields,” said Samantara.
One of the team members said, “It is like the same team during our days on the project LCA. We know each other and respect each other. We aim to give back to society what we have learned. What else do you want, post-retirement?”
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