India’s Kavari engine can swim and fly–doesn’t have a plane yet!

[Neo]

India’s Kavari engine can swim and fly–doesn’t have a plane yet!

April 9, 2010

The soap opera of the Kaveri engines doesn’t ever seem to end. It has been in the design phase for about three decades with untold millions spent on the plane. Official figures vary, but experts estimate that about $1 billion has been spent on an engine that does nothing for the Indian Air Force.
Indian Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), continues to falter even after 25 years

The soap opera of the Kaveri engines doesn't ever seem to end. It has been in the design phase for about three decades with untold millions spent on the plane. Official figures vary, but experts estimate that about $1 billion has been spent on an engine that does nothing for the Indian Air Force.

The Kaveri was originally planned for the Tejas fighter which also has been in the design phase for 30 or so years. The Kevari has been a colossal failure, but the corrupt politicians and the military thieves want to milk it for all its worth and stuff their pockets.

The Tejas is a joke in itself. It was supposed to use the Tejas. With that not working out, the Tejas may still use a GE engine–but the GEO engine does not fit the frame. The Snacma has been in the news for three years. Nothing has happened on the front except a lot of jaw jaw.

Unmitigated failure: Indian Tejas scrapped. New Snecma plane?

The French Snecma may be an option but France may have to build a new engine for Bharat–which seems a far cry and may not be possible in the immediate future. The Tejas was designed three decades ago. Its design is obsolete now. Bharat needs a trainer aircraft, but it does not have one–hence the more than 300 Mig crashes which makes the IAF the Air Force with the worst track record on the planet.

The Kaveri was then positioned as some sort of a power source for a naval vessel ( I don’t make up the stories, I simply report them). Many readers on our site insisted that the Kaveri would be used as a source for propelling a naval vessel.

* http://www.deagel.com/news/Kaveri-Ma...000004644.aspx
* http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/..._10072815.html

While the Bharatis make up their mind whether the Kavari wil swim or fly, the world can look an the development cycle in awe–can the Kavari walk also and propel tanks?
Indian Tejas: Case study of failure and incompetence

Now the news item proudly proclaims that the Kaveri will fly again–however on a Russian plane. The press report from the DRDO did not give details whether the Kaveri would fly in the cargo hold of the Russian plan or be strapped on the wings. Bharat has already grounded the IL-76s—not sure why the Kaveri would be flying on tankers.

Nearly two decades after defence scientists began work on an indigenous fighter engine Kaveri , officials said Kaveri will be tested on a Russian aircraft in the next two months.

Scientists of Gas Turbine and Research Establishment or GTRE, the DRDO unit have integrated the engine, developed in Bengalurum on an Illyushin 78 transport aircraft in Russia.

“In the next one and half months, it will fly,” said T Mohana Rao, director of GTRE.

“In ground trials, the engine has performed more than expectations.All issues have been addressed, including the after burner,” Rao said.

Kaveri was first conceived as an engine for Tejas, the light combat
aircraft developed by Aeronautical Development Agency based in Bengaluru.

Tejas is now being powered by General Electric-404 engines due to delays in development of Kaveri.

India has floated a tender to decide on either an upgraded GE engine on Eurofighter engine for Tejas.

Kaveri be used for future versions of the fighter aircraft.

“Gas turbine engine technology is most complex. that is he reason for the delays” Rao said.

Parallely, GTRE is going with Snecma of France to build more powerful
engines for Tejas.

Now Snecma will bring in the core, called “Eco”for the new engine and integrate with systems developed for Kaveri.

The Kaveri programme has cost the exchequer nerarly Rs 2800 crore.

Aeronautics Research & Development Board (AR&DB) of DRDO has taken a new initiative called “coherent directed research” in the area of gas turbines.

In this top down approach, DRDO, taking into account futuristic national programmes would support, encourage, nurture,monitor and exploit the design, research, development and manufacturing capability of academic institution& R&D establishments, industries and other think tanks to carry out frontline work in bringing out nextgen gas turbine engine system.

This program called “GATET” envisages about Rs 100 Cr investment in 3 years and participation of 100 R&D centres and as many as 1000 scientists, engineers and technicians.

“In five to six years, we will have a huge talent pool and
technologies for Gas turbine through this programme,” said Rao. Indigenous Keveri to be tested on a Russian aircraft. Correspondent, Wednesday, April 07, 2010 AT 07:42 PM (IST), Tags: DRDO

India’s indigenous Tejas is plane under perpetual development. This “plane” has had the longest development cycle of any train, plane or automobile in the history of world. After a decade of false starts, abject failures, the Tejas remains a butt of jokes among the engineers, journalists and scientists in the aviation industry. Indian Airforce crying wolf? or facing shortage of jets?

A lot can be achieved in two and a half decades. For an individual, its roughly one-third of the average lifespan. For a nation, its enough time for an entire generation to come through. A nation can be transformed from a marshy swamp into one of the largest economies of the world – as in the case of Singapore.

What did Indian Air Force (IAF) achieve in twenty six years while consuming over $2 billion? the answer to that is Zilch; Zero; Nada; Nothing – except a failed project and a continued embarrassment in the shape ‘Tejas’. Tejas LCA (Light Combat Aircraft, also known as Last Chance Aircraft) has gone many trials and tests and there’s no sign of induction as yet. It has now been announced to enter IAF in 2010.

http://militarystrat.wordpress.com/2...e-a-plane-yet/

[Mastankhan]

Hi,

I believe the writer is being too sarcastic and has a lack of knowledge regarding the use of the jet engine in the indian frigate---the jet engines are used to give the ship extra speed for a short period of time in case of combat, a missile or torpedo attack.

Indian navy has done a great thing to make use of it in their frigate to be. I wish the pak navy had done so for their frigates as well---even though it costs a bit of money---but the end results are very good.


One day india will learn that it does not need to invent the wheel to be technically advanced---but not soon.

[sonicboom]

My favorite line...

"The press report from the DRDO did not give details whether the Kaveri would fly in the cargo hold of the Russian plan or be strapped on the wings. "

[vinod2070]

^^ Nothing surprising. That line just goes to show the pathetic mindset of a failure.

Mindset of some Pakistanis

[vinod2070]

I would really like to ask this "excuse of a writer" whether his own country has developed even a 60 cc engine that can power a small moped carrying one person!'

If yes, I would like to see the details and its commercial success.

If no, shut the fcuk up.

[vinod2070]

For all those blindly parroting about the supposed "endless delays"!

Bengaluru, Feb. 2: The IAF, long ridiculed as one of the world’s biggest air forces that has never flown its own indigenous fighters, could be flying a squadron of Tejas Light Combat Aircraft by the end of the year.
The defence minister, Mr A.K. Anthony, declared on Tuesday that the indigenous aircraft, the world’s smallest multi-role fighter “will certainly get the Initial Operational Clearance (IOC) by the end of 2010”.
In January, the Cabinet Committee on Security allocated Rs 8,000 crore for production of the air force version of the LCA and for the development of the naval version and the trainer, clearly indicating that there was now no doubt at the highest decision-making levels about the success of the project.
Tejas — long criticised as being too late, too expensive – was first conceived some 27 years ago. It began as a technology demonstrator project in 1993 and was subsequently cleared for development as a multi-role fighter in 2001.
Nearly, all trials have been completed in some 1,290 flights.
Mr P. S. Subramanyam, the man spearheading the development of Tejas, said, “Only the Multi-Mode Radar needs to be flown on Tejas, and that we will do this month”.
Mr Antony’s championship of the indigenous military technology has also seen DRDO notch up a Rs 4,000 crore IAF order to supply it six squadrons of Akash air defence missile systems, in addition to the two squadrons it already has and against stiff competition from the Israeli Spyder system.

On for 27 yrs, chronically delayed LCA project gets Rs 8,000 crore more

[Neo]

Have the weight and thrust problems been solved? Is it ready to power the Tejas yet?

[vinod2070]

Originally Posted by Neo

Have the weight and thrust problems been solved? Is it ready to power the Tejas yet?

Kaveri has been delinked from Teja as of now unless it can meet the performance requirements.

Kaveri Engine Project update

In a months’ time Joint venture by GTRE and Snecma will be bring enhance thrust to the Kaveri Engine and new engine will be available in four to five years from now on , new joint venture most likely will be signed when French President Nicholas Sarkozy will come to India in April 2010.

Since Kaveri engine has been separated from Tejas Project which is currently powered by Ge’s F-404-GE-IN20 engine and further batches (Tejas MKII) will be powered by either GE F-414 or Euro jet EJ-200 engines. GTRE still considers that new engine still has a chance to power Tejas MKII, but the development time for Kaveri MK-2 of four to five years will clearly delay the development of Tejas MK-II so wisely new engine will be selected from the two types which are been evaluated .

So which Aircraft will Kaveri MK-2 power? Most likely AMCA (Advance Medium Combat Aircraft) which ADE and DRDO will be developing , Kaveri Mark -1 may still be integrated with a Tejas PV-1 aircraft by year end once successful trails have been completed in Russia on a Flying Test Bed in a modified IL-76 aircraft which are currently is taking place . With dry thrust of 52 kn and 85 kn in reheat Kaveri Mark-1 is still good enough to power a locally developed Advance jet Trainer (AJT) or even a Tejas Trainer ,GTRE is also working on using Kabini core to develop small turbofan engine for UMCA (Unmanned combat aircraft) or High flying UAV’s which DRDO is developing ,ADE which is main developer of Tejas program is also contemplating idea of a Unmanned Tejas which may be powered by Kaveri-Mark-1 or 2 ,but there is no development currently taking place at this time .

Marine Kaveri has been successfully tested in a Indian Naval dock yard Facility in Vishakhapatnam, which will power Rajput class of ships, Marine Kaveri engine was able to generate 12 MW (16000 hp) at sea level under 35 degree Celsius , GTRE is ready working on 3 or 4 test engines which will be tested onboard within next three years and cost for each engine is expected to be below 25 crores ,which is cheaper than the Western imported engines , Navy will order around 40 of this engines for powering warship in a years to come

Two decades ago GTRE was authorized to launch a programme to develop an indigenous power plant for the countries Indigenous built Light combat aircraft known as Tejas. Kaveri Engine Program from its start till date only four core engines and eight Kaveri engines have been manufactured even after repeated success in Indian condition where engine was able to generate 4774 kgf (dry) and 7000 kgf (reheat) thrust ,failed most of time in High altitude reheat tests conducted in Russia from 2001 onwards.

http://idrw.org/?p=764#more-764

[vinod2070]

So basically we are looking at 5 years while the engine core is reworked and it can meet the performance requirements for some Teja variants.

I think one has to keep the context here. Developing a jet engine is one of the most complex technical challenges, more than even space rockets. That's why so few countries have managed it. Just as an example China has struggled for decades to develop a jet engine as well and used a Russian engine for JF-17.

Its just a damned difficult task and takes decades to master. I will say it has been a great achievement for India to have developed the engine which can now be improved. How many countries have achieved this?

The experience and infrastructure that it has created will benefit India in the coming decades. It was just a hugely ambitious project that faced its inevitable issues.

[Selma Shirazi]

Originally Posted by vinod2070

^^ Nothing surprising. That line just goes to show the pathetic mindset of a failure.

Mindset of some Pakistanis

Why don't you open a similar threat about Indian mindset dear? I'm sure you'll find similar if not worse mentality in several boards often visited or run by Indians.