Moscow, May 4
In the wake of a high number of pilots and aircraft lost by the Indian Air Force in peace time due to MiG-21 crashes, a top Russian aircraft designer has blamed the absence of an intermediate jet trainer for the catastrophic rate of accidents.
“The delay in the induction of indigenous intermediate jet trainer by India is the main cause of the high accident rate of MiG-21s, which is a very strict aircraft and never forgives any mistake on the part of the pilot,” Deputy Chief Designer of the Russian Aircraft Corporation. “MiG”, Mr Valdimir Barkovsky, said. The IAF’s track record in the past decade has been dismal, and according to its own submission in Parliament, it lost 80 pilots and 185 aircraft — almost a fourth of its entire fleet.
“Things were alright when the trainee used to sit at the joystick of MiG-21 after gaining flying experience on “Kiran” or HF-24 “Marut”, which were virtually used as intermediate jet trainers. Today after training on basic piston engine aircraft the trainee pilot is directly put in the cockpit of MiG-21,” Mr Barkovsky said.
“You cannot expect a man, who just learned to drive a car to pilot a jet fighter too,” he added, noting that India’s HJT-36 single engine intermediate jet trainer project was running behind schedule, when the IAF badly needed modern trainer jets.
With India moving towards induction of new-generation fighters the issue of intermediate and advanced jet trainers had acquired paramount importance and this issue could no longer be put on the back burner, he underscored.
Mr Barkovsky believes that India’s HJT-36 intermediate jet trainer to be equipped with French Larzac engine would make a good combination with MiG-AT advanced jet trainer equipped with two Larzac engines.
Echoing the sentiments of Mr Barkovsky, Mr Ruslan Pukhov of the Centre for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST) said ill ground maintenance was among other factors which compounded to the high accident rate of MiG-21 fighters earning acrimonious repute of “flying coffins” and “widow maker” for them.
NAGPUR:
The MiG-21 aircraft of the IAF are still airworthy and have a long life with an average of 1,500 flying hours still left, according to Air Marshal D.C. Nigam, Air Officer Commanding in Chief of Headquarters Maintenance (HQMC).
“The average life of MiG-21 in the world is about 3,000 flying hours whereas our aircraft in the fleet have flown only 1,600 to 1,700 hours which rules out any apprehension about their lives,” Air Marshal Nigam told a press conference on Saturday.
PTI
