ENGINES
HISTORY
Around late 80's When relationship between India and Usa was improving under the leadership of Rajiv Gandhi, Request for help regarding LCA Programme was asked with United states and it was readily accepted then, United State Air Force ( USAF ) was selected to help India in testing Fly-by-wire FCS for LCA and In return US also offered GE F-404 jet engines to power LCA Prototypes which was readily accepted by India , has Russian engines after the fallout of USSR where not considered to be good enough and reliable and since Kaveri Project which was underway could require some years before it could be developed, tested and certified . In 1987 ADA ordered 11 GE F-404 jet engines at cost of nearly 11 Million US $ and where delivered by 1988, but the engines were only integrated with the airframe (LCA TD-1) in 1997 almost 9 years after it was purchased, it was maintained according to a strict schedule laid down by the Manufacture General Electric (GE) even when it was not in use for almost a decade. On 7 April 1998 engine was fired up from TD-1 for the Ground Run .After 1998 nuclear test by India, very next day US Government put Technological Sanctions and spares for GE F-404 jet engines was also cut off, it did put pressure on ADA on Maintaining this Engine with Limited Spares, But Sanction where lifted in 2001 same year Tejas TD-1 took its first flight and flow of Spares started again
General Electric F404
The General Electric F404 is an afterburning turbofan engines in the 10,500-19,000 lbf (85 kN) class (static thrust). F404 is the same engine which Powered First Few batch of Prototypes (TD-1/2, Pv-1/2/3, LSP-1)
Specification (F404-GE-402) Powered Prototype aircrafts
General characteristics
" Type: Afterburning turbofan
" Length: 154 in (3,912 mm)
" Diameter: 35 in (889 mm)
" Dry weight: 2,282 lb (1,036 kg)
Components
" Compressor: Axial compressor with 3 fan and 7 compressor stages
" Bypass ratio: 0.34:1
" Turbine: 1 low-pressure and 1 high-pressure stage
Performance
" Thrust:
o 11,000 lbf (48.9 kN) military thrust
o 17,700 lbf (78.7 kN) with afterburner
" Overall pressure ratio: 26:1
" Specific fuel consumption:
o Military thrust: 0.81 lb/(lbf·h) (82.6 kg/(kN·h))
o Full afterburner: 1.74 lb/(lbf·h) (177.5 kg/(kN·h))
" Thrust-to-weight ratio: 7.8:1 (76.0 N/kg)
F404-GE-IN20 To Power Tejas Mk-1
In early July 2002 orders for the 8 Limited Series Production (LSP) was given to HAL and Funds were released to set up a Assembly Line for them, Second round of Negotiation With GE started for the F-404 Engines and GE offered more improved Variant of F-404 which is known has F404-GE-IN20, this engine included features such has advanced Full Authority Digital Electronic Control (FADEC), Higher MTBO and Better Thrust. ADA awarded General Electric a $105 million contract in February 2004 for development engineering and production of 17 F404-GE-IN20 engines. ADA took delivery of its first -IN20 engines in 2007. These engines will be used to power low rate (also called limited) production Tejas/LCA aircraft and first two operational Squadrons of Tejas in IAF
Specifications
Dimensions: Diameter 890 mm, Length 3.9 m
Weights: Max Weight 1,035 kg (2,282 lb)
Engine/s Performance: Thrust 20,200 lb (9,163 kg)
F414-GE-INS6 To Power Tejas Mk-2
GE Aviation was declared as the lowest bidder. "Further price negotiations and contract finalisation will follow,” the Defence R&D Organisation (DRDO) announced on 30 September 2010. The deal will cover purchase of 99 GE F414 engines. The initial batch will be supplied by GE and the rest will be manufactured in India under a transfer of technology arrangement.
# Maximum thrust: 22,000 lbf (98 kN)
# Overall pressure ratio: 30:1
# Thrust-to-weight ratio: 9:1
KAVERI
Development of the LCA's Kaveri turbofan engine started at Gas Turbine Research Establishment (GTRE). Test runs of the first complete prototype Kaveri began in 1996, an agreement has been signed with Russia for loan of a Tu-16 twinjet, on which the test Kaveri will be mounted in a ventral pod. Engine tests are also planned at a high-altitude test facility, as an important feature of the Kaveri for operation in hot-and-high conditions is flat rating of the engine to maintain thrust to higher temperatures and altitudes. The production Kaveri, with a reheat thrust of 20,200 lbs. (80kN), will be more powerful than the 17,000 lbs. but due continuous failures in high-altitude test facility in Russia whole project repeatedly got delayed even at the start of 2009 Engine still lacked to met it design parameters, since Kaveri was designed keeping LCA Project in mind and it was supposed to Power all the Production Tejas entering Indian Air Force ,but due to continuous delays and changes in ASR (Air Staff Requirements) by IAF to bring in 100KN Thrust engine for the Later Tejas Production Aircraft (Tejas MK-II), was also most a nail in coffin for the Kaveri Project . GTRE also failed to make Kaveri a reliable engine by failing to develop single-crystal turbine blade Technology for the Engine, by late 2008 it was decided that Kaveri Engine Project will be separated from the LCA Project to avoid further delays to the LCA Project and a new 100KN engine will be selected to Power estimated 120 Tejas MK-II aircrafts . Engines which has been Narrowed down for Powering Tejas MK-II are GE F414 and EJ200
KAVERI-M88-3 HYBRID
To further develop the Kaveri engine to power future generation of UAV's and Next Generation Fighter Aircrafts (NGFA) a Joint Venture between Snecma Engine Manufacture from France and GTRE from India was formed in Mid 2008 to develop a 100KN Thrust engine, Snecma will bring in M88-3 Core and use the Technology developed for Kaveri to make this new engines,it is expected that the first working Prototype will be ready within 5 to 6 years
