Inching close to Final Operational Clearance (FOC), Hindustan Aeronautics Limited has carried out a hot refueling trial on the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft-Tejas, followed by a sortie at the HAL airport here.
The hot refueling-cum-sortie of LCA-Tejas was conducted yesterday.
The system performance during the refueling session was in-line with design requirements and was satisfactory, HAL said in a release.
In the history of IAF aircraft, LCA would be the first to fly with this unique capability of hot refueling and HAL has successfully demonstrated this on LCA Tejas LSP8 aircraft, it said.
Hot Refueling is a single point pressure refueling of the aircraft with the engine in operation.
It is a process by which a fighter aircraft is refueled (in between sorties) while its engine is in operation, thereby cutting down refueling time by half and turn-around time significantly.
HAL said this capability is highly desired in combat situation,which basically puts aside the need for the pilot to park the aircraft, power down and exit the cockpit for refueling to begin.
Further, with this, a major requirement of LCA Air Force Mk.1A has been achieved, the release said.