India’s light combat aircraft Tejas has successfully completed the ‘drop tank jettison trial’ over the recently commissioned air-to-ground range of National Flight Test Centre at Chitradurga.
According to DD, the 1,200-litre drop tank jettison trial was conducted on Friday at a critical point in the jettison envelope on Tejas LSP-3 aircraft, piloted by Group Captian Suneet Krishna, P S Subramanyam, Programme Director (CA) and Director of the Aeronautical Development Agency, said in a statement in Banglaora.
Jettisonable drop tanks are carried by a combat aircraft, after completing the mission and are required to be dropped from the mother aircraft for a quick getaway from the enemy territory and other emergency situations.
To ensure safety of flight, clean separation of the tank with adequate clearances from the mother aircraft or neighbouring stores are needed to be established from flight test.
The trial aircraft was escorted by another Tejas PV-2 which captured the external video picture of the drop tank trajectory after release.
The theoretical predictions were further verified through ‘Pit drop tests’, conducted on a test specimen using specially designed test rig with part of the aircraft system and high speed photography system integrated with it.
