historical article on the humble beginnings of indian space pgm
http://www.flonnet.com/fl2101/stories/20040116004011600.htm

and the worlds smallest TEL then 🙂

today

from the description the scramjet engine sounds in area of
ISROs rocket engine people than DRDO/GTRE kaveri jet engine people. So both can be / is being done in parallel.

the max life of 100 flights points to the zero civilian flight potential of this tech. it may have some use in lofting payloads into low earth orbit via a high altitude release of a small booster + payload (maybe cheaper than a ground based launch) and as
a delivery vehicle for weapons of mass destruction more flexible than ICBMs.

in any case, it will be a good learning experience. NASA / lockheed
have this whole range of X-planes, bird of prey, ucav , himat etc
scaled models and full models which never see active service but
build up the knowledge base.

no tailplane config has been tried by NASA X-36 testbed in a
28% subscale model

The NASA/Boeing X-36 Tailless Fighter Agility Research Aircraft program successfully demonstrated the tailless fighter design using advanced technologies to improve the maneuverability and survivability of possible future fighter aircraft. The program
met or exceeded all project goals.

For 31 flights during 1997 at the Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards, California, the project team examined the aircraft’s agility at low speed / high angles of attack and at high speed / low angles of attack. The aircraft’s speed envelope reached up to 206 knots (234 mph). This aircraft was very stable and maneuverable. It handled very well.

The X-36 vehicle was designed to fly without the traditional tail surfaces common on most aircraft. Instead, a canard forward of the wing was used as well as split ailerons and an advanced thrust-vectoring nozzle for directional control. The X-36 was unstable in both pitch and yaw axes, so an advanced, single-channel digital fly-by-wire control system (developed with some commercially available components) was put in place to stabilize the aircraft.

Using a video camera mounted in the nose of the aircraft and an onboard microphone, the X-36 was remotely controlled by a
pilot in a ground station virtual cockpit. A standard fighter-type head-up display (HUD) and a moving-map representation of the vehicle’s position within the range in which it flew provided excellent situational awareness for the pilot. This pilot-in-the-loop approach eliminated the need for expensive and complex autonomous flight control systems and the risks associated with their inability to deal with unknown or unforeseen phenomena in flight.

Fully fueled the X-36 prototype weighed approximately 1,250 pounds. It was 19 feet long and three feet high with a wingspan of just over 10 feet. A Williams International F112 turbofan engine provided close to 700 pounds of thrust. A typical research flight lasted 35 to 45 minutes from takeoff to touchdown. A total of 31 successful research flights were flown from May 17, 1997, to November 12, 1997, amassing 15 hours and 38 minutes of flight time. The aircraft reached an altitude of 20,200 feet and a maximum angle of attack of 40 degrees.

In a follow-on effort, the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, contracted with Boeing to fly AFRL’s Reconfigurable Control for Tailless Fighter Aircraft (RESTORE) software as a demonstration of the adaptability of the neural-net algorithm to compensate for in-flight damage or malfunction of effectors, such as flaps, ailerons and rudders. Two RESTORE research flights were flown in December 1998, proving the viability of the software approach.

The X-36 aircraft flown at the Dryden Flight Research Center in 1997 was a 28-percent scale representation of a theoretical advanced fighter aircraft. The Boeing Phantom Works (formerly McDonnell Douglas) in St. Louis, Missouri, built two of the
vehicles in a cooperative agreement with the Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California.

http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/NAVY/Harrier.html

too early to decide the engine. just size, perf range and weight
ought to be enough at conceptual stage.

news about kaveri has been deliberately kept low because this
represents a big breakout from having to depend on the
Ru,france or US for engines..one of the most precious items in
the world today and closely held by those who have the tech.
NOBODY is going to part with their millions of man hrs of design,
test and simulation experience which forms the bedrock of knowledge.

US has displayed the nasty habit of first finding out what you
want, then sanctioning and blocking critical items under various
tech denial regimes.

M88-3 is an alternative. Its compact and plenty good. or F414
perhaps.

PTI:
Atre said India had made a big breakthrough by developing an indigenous weapons locating radar (WLR), which had come successfully after field trials.

“The Army has already issued a letter of intent for the WLRs which would start production at Bharat Electronics in March, 2004,” he said.

India had signed a contract with US Army for import of eight Raytheon built ANTPQ-37 fire finding radars, two of which are now in use with the Indian Army.
********

the BEL-WLR is a spinoff the Rajendra phased array radar of Akash SAM and externally there is no difference. so reports of it passing its tests well were true.

Akash system as a whole (4 rajendra radar each covering 90′,
CAR surveillance radar, multiple launchers and and the combat
control system) is slated to undergo large scale user trails against
all types of targets in Spring04. will be tested by user. if it passes
theres nothing more to do but produce . it is an expensive and
complex system, so initially army may buy for strike corps and
some vital area protection to spread the cost out.

the 10 more ANTPQ37s are also going to arrive from mid-2004
iirc. any lingering US plan to delay their arrival to “control”
india pushing pak around is in the dustbin now that BEL-WLR
is working and will form bulk of IA inventory

what could be more high-end and israeli than Phalcon and Green Pine ? one is already with india and contract signed for other.
india also has Heron and SearcherII with their payloads, plus Harpy drones. throw in ECM kits for sundry a.c. israeli eqpt is
rumoured to mounted on the classified ELINT a/c RAW uses on
707s , gulfstreams

israel isnt known much for their cockpit avionics as for their
ECM systems, radars and missiles. And India is deeply engaged
with all three :p

there is not much point discussing indian hyperplane today. any
prototype is 20 yrs off , its more a science project phase . obviously nobody has the engine and those who will have it wont sell, so it will have to be sourced internally.