Innovative Method for the Estimation of Closure Velocity between RAT Driven Drogue and IFR Probe Air to Air refueling Flight Trials

  • Arunachaleswaran Arumugam National Flight Test Centre, Aeronautical Development Agency, Bengaluru
  • Anoop Kabadwal National Flight Test Centre, Aeronautical Development Agency, Bengaluru
  • Rajeev Joshi National Flight Test Centre, Aeronautical Development Agency, Bengaluru
  • Siddarth Singh National Flight Test Centre, Aeronautical Development Agency, Bengaluru
  • Malteesh Prabhu National Flight Test Centre, Aeronautical Development Agency, Bengaluru
  • Amar Preet Singh National Flight Test Centre, Aeronautical Development Agency, Bengaluru
  • Srinivasan Elangovan Bharath Institute of Higher Education and Research, Selaiyur - 600 073, Chennai
  • M. Sundararaj Bharath Institute of Higher Education and Research, Selaiyur - 600 073, Chennai
Keywords: Air to air refueling, In-flight refueling probe, Drogue basket, Closure velocity, Ram air turbine, Flight trials, Photogrammetric analysis, GPS tracking

Abstract

Air-to-air refueling for a fighter platform is a force multiplier in terms of increasing its combat radius and payload carrying ability. Adapting for such a facility especially for an aircraft under design and development is a challenging task. It requires rigorous ground and flight testing to meet the certification standards. One of important flight test parameter that needs to be validated for structural impact load calculations and certification needs is the closure velocity. The air-to-air refueller was equipped with a Ram-air-turbine powered drogue and chute system. An innovative methodology of estimating the closure velocity between the drogue of the mother aircraft and the in-flight refueling probe of the receiving aircraft was evolved. The method was employed and validated during the air-to-air refueling trials of a prototype fighter platform. The intention of this paper is to explain the methodology employed and deliberate the results obtained with respect to the air-to-air refueling certification.

Author Biographies

Arunachaleswaran Arumugam, National Flight Test Centre, Aeronautical Development Agency, Bengaluru
Gr Capt A. Arunachaleswaran is an alumnus of IIT, Kharagpur. He has specialised in mg-based metal matrix composites. He is a graduate of the Air Force Test Pilots School and is specialised in weapons Testing. He is presently pursuing his PhD in Aeronautical engineering and has been working as a Flight Test engineer at National Flight Test Centre for prototype flight testing of Tejas Light Combat Aircraft. He was involved in innovating the idea of estimating the closure velocity and was also the rear cockpit test crew on the chase aircraft for the Air to Air refueling trials of the prototype fighter aircraft.

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Anoop Kabadwal, National Flight Test Centre, Aeronautical Development Agency, Bengaluru
Gr Capt Anoop Kabadwal (Retd.) has completed his MTech in material Science from Japan, in 2008. He is a graduate of Air Force Test Pilot’s School, Bengaluru and has experience in flight testing. He is presently in Aeronautical Development Agency for prototype flight test duties of LCA. He was the lead Flight Test engineer and the Test Director of the Air to Air refueling trials.
Rajeev Joshi, National Flight Test Centre, Aeronautical Development Agency, Bengaluru
Gr Capt Rajeev Joshi is an alumnus of National Defence Academy (NDA). He has operational flying experience on MIG 23, MIGG 21 and Mirage 2000 aircraft. He is a graduate of the Air Force Test Pilot’s School, Bengaluru. He has been in the field of Flight Testing for the last 15 year. He is presently serving as a Test Pilot at NFTC for prototype flight testing of LCA. He has contributed towards flight test planning and piloting the prototype fighter aircraft.  
Siddarth Singh, National Flight Test Centre, Aeronautical Development Agency, Bengaluru
Wg Cdr Siddarth Singh has completed his post-graduation in Computer Science engineering. He is a Fighter Strike Leader. He is a graduate of Air Force Test Pilots School and is presently deputed to NFTC for flight testing of LCA. He has contributed towards flight test planning and piloting the prototype fighter aircraft.
Malteesh Prabhu, National Flight Test Centre, Aeronautical Development Agency, Bengaluru
Gr Capt M. Prabhu (Retd.) has completed his ME in Mechanical (Air Armament), MS (Software Systems) and MBA in Project management. He is a graduate of the Air Force Test Pilot’s School, Bungaluru. He has been in the field of flight testing. He is presently the Group Director, FT e at NFTC, ADA.  He has contributed towards flight test planning of the Air to Air refueling trials.
Amar Preet Singh, National Flight Test Centre, Aeronautical Development Agency, Bengaluru
AVM Amar Preet Singh is an alumnus of National Defence Academy, Defence Services Staff College and National Defence College. He is a graduate of the Air Force Test Pilots School and has been a flying instructor in the school. He was the Project Director (Flight Testing) at NFTC managing flight testing of LCA. He is a proud recipient of Presidential award ‘Athi Vishit Seva Medal’ for his distinguished service to the IAF. He has contributed towards flight test planning and piloting of the chase aircraft.
Srinivasan Elangovan, Bharath Institute of Higher Education and Research, Selaiyur - 600 073, Chennai
Dr Srinivasan Elangovan has completed his PhD in Aerospace Engineering from IIT, Kanpur. He has served as a Research Fellow at IIT, madras. He was a Principal Investigator for many defense-related projects funded by DRDO. He also held the position of Director of the Centre for Aerospace Research. Currently, he is Dean (Aeronautics) at the Bharath Institute of Higher Education and Research, Selaiyur, Chennai. He has to his credit many research papers published in reputed journals and conference proceedings.  He has contributed towards the academic research and literature support for the work.
M. Sundararaj, Bharath Institute of Higher Education and Research, Selaiyur - 600 073, Chennai
Dr M. Sundararaj has completed his PhD from MIT, Anna University, Chennai. He is proficient in the field of fluid flow theory and CFD. He is the Principal Investigator for Research projects sponsored by AR & DB (Aeronautical Research Development Board), MoD. He is currently the HoD (Aeronautical Engineering) at Bharath Institute of Higher Education and Research, Selaiyur, Chennai.  
Published
2020-03-09
How to Cite
Arumugam, A., Kabadwal, A., Joshi, R., Singh, S., Prabhu, M., Singh, A., Elangovan, S., & Sundararaj, M. (2020). Innovative Method for the Estimation of Closure Velocity between RAT Driven Drogue and IFR Probe Air to Air refueling Flight Trials. Defence Science Journal, 70(2), 140-144. https://doi.org/10.14429/dsj.70.14100
Section
Aeronautical Systems