BANGALORE: Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha on Friday visited the Iron Bird facility at Aircraft Research and Design Centre in the city.
The Chief of Air Staff inspected the facility where more than 14,370 hours of software testing of LCA Tejas has been completed till date. “It is a unique facility and an asset to the LCA Tejas programme. Using this facility, tests can be carried out under normal and failure modes for complex aircraft systems,” said R K Tyagi, Chairman, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), who accompanied the Air Chief.
The facility allows for an integrity test for the flight control system for statically unstable aircraft such as the LCA and very few countries in the world have access to such testing platform, he said. Iron Bird is the final platform where all the issues of LCA Tejas flight control systems are resolved to ensure safety of the flight. It is a testing that facilitates ground testing of Flight Control System (FCS), components and software for LCA in open loop and closed loop modes. Other associated aircraft systems like the LCA standard cockpit with necessary controls and displays, hydraulic system, landing gear retraction/ extension systems, FCS-related Utility Services Management System (USMS) and nose-wheel steering systems are also evaluated at the Iron Bird.