Let’s see if people can be unbaised and comment on the below instead of whining about and bashing a certain kaveri for a change. :dev2:

From Jane’s
Quote:
Chinese turbofan engine undergoes ground tests

JOHNATHON WENG JDW Correspondent
Tianjin

* China’s efforts to develop a turbofan engine stem back to the 1960s

* The testing of the WS10 still leaves production hurdles to be overcome

China’s WS10 turbofan engine has had a long history going back to the start of the WS6 turbofan programme in the 1960s, but news that the engine has undergone testing in a Sukhoi Su-27-derived fighter reveals a new maturity in the programme.

The level of development of the engine was revealed in November 2005 in a public statement by the government-owned press that the design had been finalised after two decades of research and development.

The WS10 is derived from the earlier WS6 variant, which was abandoned after completion as an engine – 20 years and two engine generations later – in the 1980s.

The expertise of 606 Engine Design Institute in developing the WS6 and the 1982 acquisition of CFM-56 engines, which are based on the compressor of the F101-GE-102 engine used in B-1B bombers, supported the development of the WS10.

The WS10 work was conducted under the High Performance Propulsion System Preliminary Development plan and in 1989, almost 10 years after WS10 work started, three key engineering challenges were identified: a seven-stage high-pressure compressor; a short annular combustor with air blast atomiser; and air-film cooling turbine rotor blades.

It was planned that the development of these requirements would lead to a Medial Thrust Demonstration Turbofan Core Engine (MTDTCE) and eventually a demonstration engine. The China Gas Turbine Establishment led the development work on the engine and in 1992 major component manufacturing blueprints were drawn up.

Military Industrial Plant 403 manufactured the MTDTCE with the involvement of 21 Chinese factories and research organisations. Trial production began in March 1992.

In December 1992 the engine was powered and nine days later the engine reached maximum speed within testing parameters.

Indigenous development and the use of Russian aero-engine experts, as well as knowledge of the AL-31F engine which powers the Su-27, drove further development.

The 606 Engine Design Institute then received a Sukhoi Su-27 (Chinese designation: J-11) as a test platform from the People’s Liberation Army Air Force.

The use of the engine in the test aircraft presented its own challenges – the oil tank and afterburner nozzle are larger – but the weakness of the Chinese military industries and shortage of investment exacerbated the problems.

The programme stumbled along between 1992 and 1997 and was further impeded by the move from a state-controlled economy to a more free market economy. In 1997 an accident in engine testing delayed the programme again.

In 2001 and 2002 the WS10 was tested on an Su-27 and in 2003 the People’s Liberation Army’s daily newspaper said that flight tests were under way. An engine failure during a flight in July 2004 put the programme in jeopardy but the aircraft returned on a single engine and an investigation reported that a bearing failure was to blame.

The WS10 was declared close to prototype stage on 11 May 2005 and this was followed by endurance life testing and full life testing. On 10 November the WS10 passed full life testing and then completed 40 days of trials without failure.

Despite the success in developing the engine, which will be manufactured by Liming Corporation, the powerplant will need to overcome manufacturing challenges if it is to be produced at a worthwhile rate.

Issues remain about production efficiency and quality control and any effort to improve these areas is likely to be hamstrung by bureaucracy. However, the development of the engine has created an improved industrial base and expertise.

Were any Foxbats lost over enemy territory?

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1026612

Work begins on first Scorpene submarine for India

AFP
Friday, April 28, 2006 19:30 IST

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CHERBOURG, (France): France’s state shipbuilder DCN began on Friday manufacturing parts for the first of six Scorpene submarines ordered by India.

New Delhi agreed in October 2005 to buy six of the Franco-Spanish submarines for 2.4 billion euros. The deal is a technology transfer agreement: the Scorpenes will be assembled in India, but the Direction des Compagnies Navales (DCN) will produce various key parts that require equipment unavailable at Indian shipyards.

Some 200 technicians and engineers at the DCN will be working full time on the submarine parts for the next eight years, the project’s director, Xavier l’Helgoualc’h, said at a ceremony to mark the cutting of the first plate in the northern port of Cherbourg.

The Scorpene is a 1,750-tonne (1,929-ton) submarine, 67 metres (220 feet) long and capable of diving to a depth of 300 metres.

Designed for coastal defence, it can stay at sea for up to 45 days with a crew of 31. It is equipped with modern sonar detection equipment, six torpedo tubes and missile launchers; these are among the parts being produced in France, along with the propellers, hatches and front and back bulkheads.

DCN developed the submarine jointly with the Spanish shipbuilder Navantia (formerly Izar), with the French defence group Thales providing the electronics.

Work on assembling the first Scorpene is scheduled to begin in December 2006 at the Mazagaon shipyard in Mumbai. The vessel should be ready by 2012, the Indian defence ministry said, with the remaining five being delivered at intervals of one per year thereafter.

cinciboy
Fighter pilot wanabee Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Free Country
Posts: 623

Quote:
Originally Posted by xanadu
Whats the idea of basing a sqn of the countries best interceptors overseas?

may be a second strike capability.

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The current Mig-29’s with the IAF are not strike aircraft . :confused: :confused: :confused:

Raygun
Rank 4 Registered User Join Date: Jul 2004
Posts: 302

Quote:
Originally Posted by SOC
Why not? Works for Russia

cost!. china is still not a rich country even with almost US $1 trillon in forex!. the PLAN vision for the flanker is to provide the fleets air denfence and the JH-7A and maybe the twin engine J-10 to attack ship’s and ground targets. the spec for the JH-7A is probaly the same as the SU-24 fencers with less powerful [max only 27,000 takeoff weigth] engine and mondern avonics.

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If they are going to base just the JH7A on a Chinese carrier its not going to be much of a contest. Even just the Naval LCA will have air superiority :rolleyes:

Here we go again 😡 😡 😡 They might as well drop the radar and concentrate on an AESA.

http://bharat-rakshak.com/NEWS/newsrf.php?newsid=5968

‘Indigenous’ aircraft needs foreign lift, for its radar
shiv aroorPosted online: Saturday, April 08, 2006 at 0000 hrs
NEW DELHI, APRIL 7
After the engine, now the much-vaunted radar of the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) that has been long under development by the DRDO could require foreign help. The multi-mode radar (MMR), considered the very brain of the LCA and the core of its future combat effectiveness, is being developed for the past nine years and a sizeable portion of the Rs 3,214 crore sanctioned for the project has gone into making it. So confident were the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and HAL about their project that they had refused to entertain foreign help for it in the 1990s.

According to the IAF, which proposes to buy 220 of the planes when they are ready, the radar is now ‘‘marooned in uncertainty’’.
The radar is meant to guide the aircraft’s weapons, tracking air and ground targets while scanning and mapping terrain—in short, everything that would make a fighter worthy of war missions. The core of the problem, according to test reports, is a serious compatibility issue between the radar and the advanced signal processor module (SPM) built by DRDO’s Electronics & Radar Development Establishment (LRDE).
While two basic radar modes have been tested, the other modes have failed, throwing up serious questions about the system’s fundamentals.
The DRDO may now approach foreign experts to solve the problem. In written replies to queries sent by The Indian Express, DRDO chief M Natarajan said: ‘‘Because of the complexity of technologies involved (in the radar project) and the extent of testing to be done, help of specialists in the field may be sought to complete the task to meet with the requirements of the initial operational clearance (aimed for March 2007) given by the IAF.’’ The DRDO had taken a similar line in the case of the indigenously developed Kaveri engine last year, after it failed during tests. When Natarajan was asked why there was uncertainty over the radar so long after development began, he said: ‘‘The radar is under development by HAL and not at LRDE (the DRDO’s lab).’’ This, even when the signal processor built by the DRDO is the very heart of the radar.

Security analyst K Subrahmanyam has earlier called the dogged refusal to entertain foreign help by the DRDO as reflective of the organisation’s bad project management.
With the radar yet to be even integrated with the LCA—it was tested on a pair of modified Avros a few years ago instead—missiles and other weapons cannot be integrated either, a principle contributor to the overall project delay.
Asked about the development, Natarajan’s predecessor V K Aatre, now a professor in Bangalore, expressed surprise. ‘‘It was the only loose end left in the LCA project when I retired (in August 2004). I am surprised it has not been taken care of even now,’’ he said. On February 23 in Parliament, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said the DRDO’s foreign tie-ups were to ‘‘expedite the development pace’’.

So, what exactly is the status of this project? The ATV is deemed to be only a technology demonstrator and not an operational submarine. Since its inception in 1983, the project has advanced at a snail’s pace despite consuming close to US$1 billion in R&D funds, and the sole technology demonstrator is highly unlikely to take to the seas even by 2010. In fact, hull fabrication has not even commenced at the state-owned, Vizag-based Hindustan Shipyard Ltd (HSL)

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Ain’t there reports floating around that two hulls ment for the ATV are floating around and ain’t there reports that the ATV will be completed by 2007-2008?