| The
Light Combat Aircraft LCA, took
to the skies on January 4, 2001.
A landmark event in the history of Indian
scientific achievements. LCA has the distinction
of being the smallest lightweight aircraft in the
world. With the flight India becomes one of the
few countries in the world to possess the
technology to design a modern fighter aircraft.
LCA is an unstable aircraft like most modern
fighters - this means that it cannot fly without
a sophisticated computer acting as a brain to
stabilize it. The pilot commands the aircraft to
make turns and fly and the digital computer does
the rest. The computer checks the sensors on the
aircraft, rejects the failed ones and updates the
pilot by visual and voice commands as to the
health of the aircraft. This is the fly-by-wire
technology. The aircraft body is made up of
advanced composite materials. It incorporates the
state of the art Advanced Digital Cockpit, Multi-Mode
Radar and an Integrated Digital Avionics System. The first flight of LCA
means that India can bring together people
belonging to different walks of life, different
religions, different cultures and different
languages together to achieve a single scientific
goal. It means that Indian scientists can develop
a state of the art technology in spite of
sanctions and technology denial.
It must be noted
that following the nuclear weapon's test in early
1998, USA placed sanctions and denied the fly-by-wire
system technology sold by the US Lockheed Martin
firm.
Read more about
LCA at the Aeronautical
Development Agency site, and FAS
Military Analysis Network site
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