ADA awaiting govt clearance

bangalore: the aeronautical development agency (ada) is waiting for government clearance to go ahead and start work on the naval variant of the light combat aircraft (lca), ada director dr kota harinarayana said on tuesday. speaking to reporters, he said two prototypes of the naval variant of the lca was being planned. the approval is expected in three to four months.once the approval comes, the naval variant would be ready in four-and-a-half years time. he said the prototype of the naval variant would be produced to production standards. meanwhile, clearance for the test trials of the test demonstrator-ii of the lca for the indian air force has been obtained and high speed taxii trials are on. the td-ii would be test flown within the next 10 days, dr harinarayana added. he said in all, 250 lca''s would be produced. giving a break up, he said 200 would be the air force variant, 20 trainer aircraft and 30 naval variant. the lca for the air force would be ready for induction by 2006. dr harinarayana, who has become the president of the aeronautical society of india said a committee of about nine-members has been formed to study the viability of flight operations on feeder routes in india. the purpose of setting up the committee of which dr harinarayana is a member would also take into account the report prepared by the national aerospace laboratory (nal) on cost reduction for flight operations. he said the committee hopes to find out how the expenditure on fuel and other aspects could be reduced to make the air fares cheaper, particularly to tourist destinations like hampi and the north east sector. the report would be ready in six months time, he added. asked about reports that he had asked the government for permission to go for a sabatical, dr harinarayana admitting that he was going on a sabatical at the indian institute of science, bangalore, said he was doing so to learn the latest applications in technology, so that it can be adopted for indian military aviation projects. earlier, speaking to reporters, society of indian aerospace technologies and industries president dr c.g.krishnadas nair said siati which is celebrating its 10th anniversary, is organising a seminar in bangalore on `future aircraft and systems'' with participation from major aerospace organisations of the world, covering future fighters, large transport aircraft, helicopters, systems, micro and mini aircraft. the seminar would be held on april 29 and 30.