Giving further thrust to the ‘Make in India’ initiative, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited carried out the first flight of Light Combat Helicopter (Technology Demonstrator-2) with its own designed and developed Automatic Flight Control System (AFCS) for the first time in the country. The maiden flight was flawless and flew for 20 minutes with the engagement of the system throughout.

The development of indigenous AFCS is HAL funded project and will replace the high value imported system, says Mr. T. Suvarna Raju, HAL-CMD. The AFCS is a digital four axis flight control system capable of performing control & stability augmentation function and auto-pilot modes of helicopters. The indigenous development of the Hardware, Software and Control Law is a fully in-house effort of HAL R&D Centres – RWR&DC and MCSRDC at Bengaluru, SLRDC at Hyderabad and Korwa Division, he added.

Wg Cdr( Retd) Unni K Pillai, Chief Test Pilot and Gp. Capt (Retd) Rajesh Verma, Test Pilot were on the controls of LCH.  Representatives from certification agencies and senior officers from HAL were present.

HAL has already indigenised the Cockpit Display System on LCH namely the Integrated Architecture Display System (IADS) with the participation of Indian private industries and development flight testing is under progress.

The Initial Operational Clearance (IOC) for LCH was accorded on August 26, 2017 in the presence of Defence Minister.