The elusive Kaveri

Neelam Mathews

Dec 10, 2012

Defense minister A.K Antony, said in parliament on the progress made by the Kaveri Engine Development Project:

(i) So far, 9 prototypes of Kaveri Engine and 4 prototypes of Kabani (Core) Engine have been developed.

(ii) 2200 hours of test (ground and altitude conditions) have been  conducted.

(iii) The following two major milestones have been achieved:

Successful completion    of Official Altitude Testing (OAT) ; and

Demonstration of First Block of flight of Kaveri Engine in Flying Test Bed (FTB).

Kaveri Engine was integrated with IL-76 Aircraft at Gromov Flight Research Institute (GFRI), Russia and flight test was successfully carried out upto 12 km maximum altitude and maximum forward speed of 0.7 Mach No. Twenty Seven flights for 57 hours duration have been completed.

DRDO demonstrated its technological capability in aero-engine technology. This has been a great achievement in the aerospace community of the country, when the first ever indigenously developed fighter aircraft engine was subjected to flight testing. Tacit knowledge acquired by the DRDO scientists during this project will also be applied for further aerospace technology.  Kaveri spin-off engine can be used as propulsion system for Indian Unmanned Strike Air Vehicle (USAV).

The project was sanctioned in March 1989 at an estimated cost of Rs.382.81 Crore and Probable Date of Completion (PDC) of December 1996. The PDC was extended to December 2009 and cost was revised and enhanced to Rs.2839 Crore.  So far, Rs.1996 Crore has been utilized in this project.