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BEL, CSIO join hands for LCA

M. Somasekhar

NEW DELHI, Jan. 10

THE Chandigarh-based Central Scientific Instruments Organisation (CSIO) and Bharat Electronics Ltd (BEL) have joined hands to produce four units of the head-up display (HUD) for the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), which has been successfully flight tested l ast week.

As per a recent agreement, BEL will get Rs 78.50 lakh for the fabrication of four airworthy units of the HUD and will have to supply them to the Aeronautical Development Establishment (ADE), Bangalore which is spearheading the LCA programme.

The HUD is an important tool for the pilot, improving his navigation capabilities and has been indigenously developed by scientists of the CSIO. It has also undergone trials and airworthy tests, according to Dr R.P. Bajpai, Director of the laboratory, un der the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

Based on the drawings and designs of the CSIO scientists, the BEL unit at Panchkula will fabricate the HUDs. In fact, BEL has already been involved in a partnership by providing sub-assemblies for the HUD, during the development and testing phase with th e CSIO.

Plans are being firmed up, with BEL to take up production of HUD units on a larger scale as demand was increasing, Dr Bajpai told Business Line. Enquiries had also come in from manufacturers of luxury cars, he said.

As per the present agreement, BEL would not have any intellectual property rights based on the work undertaken. The knowhow of the HUD generated under the project would be the property of the ADE, which is providing all the funds and is the end-user of t he equipments in the LCA programme.

The CSIO and BEL combine are also in talks with Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) units in Bangalore and Hyderabad for using the HUDs in different aircraft. Similarly, the Korba unit of the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), had evinced keen intere st, Dr Bajpai said.