The Unsung designers of HAL (1950-1980)
I have
deliberately left out Dr. V M Ghatge. I have confined myself to those whom I
knew at least by sight.
Raj Mahindra (1920-1970)
There is little information available now of about the
early life of Raj Mahindra but it appears that he had worked in the British
Aircraft Industry for ten years before joining HAL in the early ‘fifties.
During his stay in Britain during the war years he married a British girl and
he himself held a British passport. At that time India was under British rule
and there was no special stigma about being a British passport holder. Today, I
suppose he would have been a NRI. I mention all this because this fact of
having a British wife was used to lever him out of the leadership of the LCA
project –with fatal results for the project. At the time of joining Raj
Mahindra had specifically asked if his British passport or his wife being
British would affect his prospects adversely but he was reportedly assured such
would not be the case.
On joining HAL he quickly made his mark on the HT 2,
HT 10 (stillborn), HF 24 projects but his magnum opus was the HJT 16. He shared
the leadership of the design with Dr. V.M. Ghatge and after the retirement of
Dr.Ghatge in 1961 he was solely responsible for the service development of the
aircraft of which was built.
People with shallow knowledge of aircraft design
usually declare that the HJT16 was a copy of the Jet Provost. How wrong they
were! When it first flew-within 36 months of the project being sanctioned -the
aircraft was technically in advance of the Provost mainly in account of the
fact that the early Provosts (Note ) were not equipped with a pressurized cabin
until the Jet Provost Mk7 of 1964.
Raj Mahindra intuitive approach to aerodynamics can be
exemplified by his approach to getting the HJT 16 good spin behavior. The side
by side seating, square cockpit top and relatively short fuselage and most
importantly the mid set –“ëlephant ears” side intakes meant that the fin at
high AOA would be immersed in disturbed airflow. This was before CFD and gives
us an insight that a good aeronautical engineer should carry a CFD programme in
his head! Indeed he must! Raj Mahindra’s solution was increase the height of
the fin so that at least some portion of the fin would be in the free stream
and therefore retain rudder authority. You can read about it in my blog :profprodyutdas on the spinning problems of
the HJT 36 I wrote some years ago. In the HJT 36 again used the mid set
elephant ears intake of the HJT 16 and faces the same problem though again the
problem is quite curable – without foreign consultants and huge fees.
I would have preferred if he had taken some more time
to “fiddle” around with vortex generators or recontouring the bottom the
fuselage and intakes to get the airflow to cling to fuselage until it reached
the fin but perhaps “fiddling” and “tinkering” are cultures alien to us. If you
look at the fin of the Jet Provost is much smaller thus benefitting weight and
thus both acceleration and rate climb. One possible reason for the smaller fin
could be that the Jet Provosts inlets are “less obtrusive” and blended quickly
into the fuselage and is set lower vis a vis the fin and tailplane. Be that as
it may it is without doubt that Raj Mahindra was both experienced and had that
elusive “feel” so necessary for creating an aircraft and was one of the fittest
men then available to us for leading the LCA project.
This was obviously
recognized by the backers of the LCA programme who were mainly in the corridors
of the South Block. Along with Dr. SR Valluri as Project Director Raj Mahindra
was selected to be the Chief Designer of the LCA. In my idle moments I have
wondered whether the project would have been at all sanctioned if Dr. Kota had
been presented at the very beginning as the Chief Designer.
What happened was that within a year of the
sanctioning pressure was brought on SR Valluri to ease out Raj Mahindra.
Reportedly Suresh Kalmadi the Congress MP raised the question in the Parliament
about the nationality of Raj Mahindra’s wife and wondered whether a project of
national importance such as the LCA could be trusted to a man whose wife was a
foreign national and therefore by
implication sure to be a highly efficient spy!. Why this aspect was not
considered at the time of getting sanction for the project is of course a “sore
thumb” question.I believe that the intentions of the South Block were not
bonafide to begin with. The upshot was that Dr. Valluri felt that VS
Arunachalam was not being energetic enough to defend Raj Mahindra in what were
obviously ridiculous charges. Since Dr. Valluri was sure that Raj Mahindra’s
leadership was sine qua non and
perhaps analyzing other signals from other interactions with South Block , he
,being a man of honour , resigned. The result of these dealings forty years ago
is that we have the smallest fighter in the world being also the heaviest. Our
problems are NOT of Technology. Unless ADA changes their thinking ADA will next be
doing the heavier than air balloon! Having said that I do believe that the LCA
cannot be so bad and fairly simple fixes may redeem much or many of its
shortcomings.
SC Das
Subodh Chandra Das graduated from Bengal Engineering
College circa 1940 and did his Masters from IISc Bangalore before joining HAL
along with Dr. V.M. Ghatge. He was the Chief Aerodynamicist from the Indian
side for the HF 24 project and after the departure of Dr.KW Tank in 1967 he was
the Chief Designer of the project and was responsible for the HF 24 Mk.1T., the
Basant and the HPT 32 aircraft of which 120 aircraft were delivered..
I had the pleasure of being interviewed by him at IIT
Khargpur in 1972 when he led the team that was looking for people for what he
hoped would be the HF 73 project. Even at the interview I was impressed by the
obvious keenness to do good for HAL. It sort of came through. But what I want
emphasise here is something many may have overlooked.
As a PGET in Bangalore I used to roam around the place
from the Overhaul hangars to the scrap yard coming across in the process a lot
of interesting aircraft including a HAL copy of the Noordyun Norseman (a
what!) to Curtiss Commando to Zlin Akrobat not to mention Hunters, MiG and
Alizes (sic!). Then along with Subroto “Butus” Roy Choudhury there would be the
animated after dinner discussions our chummery when we would redesign the
aircraft!
In one of my ramblings I came across a weird aircraft
which I thought no sane man would have even put down on paper. It was obviously
an Agricultural aircraft which can be pretty weird looking -think of the Bennet
Airtruk -but what an aircraft was this?! It had tricycle undercarriage and a
cockpit that looked like a telephone box stuck onto a fairly conventional
fuselage. It surely could not have flown though even then I could appreciate
the care taken to ensure pilot visibility and ground handling. Of course the
aircraft did not fly well and I was told rather gleefully that the aircraft
could not fly out of ground effect.
Here came the difference. SC Das quickly salvaged the
sub- assemblies and redesigned the aircraft’s fuselage to create the Basant II
aircraft of which 31 were built. It was a very maneuverable aircraft and I saw
Wg.Cdr “Tilak fly very tight figures of eight within a half wing span of the
ground with utter confidence. I was worried a wing tip would dig in but he
seemed to have the confidence in the aircraft’s tractability. In service it
proved to be a robust aircraft with a larger than average (33 cu.ft.) chemical
tank and in Haryana it could fly up to 33 sorties in a day spraying 3360 acres
in the process.
What was there to admire in such a “goof”? The thing to admire is the honesty to
acknowledge a mistake and the ability he displayed to quickly absorb the lesson
and make the modifications necessary. SC Das was Engineer enough to realize
even if gross mistakes are made in the search of a solution the situation must be salvaged and quickly.
In contrast the LCA programme it must have been clear by 1996 that the aircraft
was grossly overweight and not able to meet the specifications but instead what
we have had from ADA was a series of cover ups that outrage common sense and
continue even today.
SC Das was also responsible for the HPT 32 which was
one of the lightest aircraft of its class when it appeared. I am sorry to say
that he took the easy way out having an oversize fin on the aircraft and some
of the cowling and undercarriage details could be neater. This resulted in the
aircraft having too much drag and though SC Das had retired out by 1979 HAL did
not do a “clean up” and “polish” of the design an aspect almost as important as
designing of the aircraft. I had written on the fuel feed problem of this
aircraft. The problems were cureable but I think the problem was used to buy
the Pilatus.
But SC Das’s real effort –unrewarded- was to doggedly
pursue the realization of the potential of the HF 24. ASA/HSS/HF73/HF 25
proposals are testimony to his efforts. The HF 25 was interesting because it
proposed to use the MiG 21’s propulsion elements to create a viable aircraft.
The assessed project cost was a mere Rs.64 Crores in 1978 money. My only
nitpick of the proposal was in trying for the maximum aerodynamic efficiency he
changed the rear fuselage contours. My objection is that this would entail
considerable fresh test flying particularly for spinning. The flat rear
fuselage bottom of the HF 24 is an asset that we must keep trading good
handling over aerodynamic efficiency. Knowing SC Das he would have given me an
attentive hearing !
I say that because having interviewed me he kept a
benign if gruff eye on me. We had even discussed the HF 24s gun firing problem
and I remember the interest with which he listened to my then yet unformed
exposition of the problem and my disparagement of the HF 73 design! Unfortunately,
soon after I took seriously ill with Typhoid which almost killed me off. Whilst
the HAL Hospital at Bangalore took good care of me the aftercare was a problem,
and my parents who were in Calcutta had difficulty coming to Bangalore . To cut
a long story short I transferred to Design Office Lucknow and worked on the
Ajeet ECS and the indigenization of the MIG 21. SC Das was quite annoyed but he
never took it out one me. Indeed , when I met him, for the last time as it
turned out, on the platform of Howrah station after I had paid him the
traditional respects I told him that I had left HAL and was now working for an
Indo British Engineering Company in Calcutta. He said with vehemence “You did
the right thing. The Bastards do not want to make aeroplanes”. In a way he echoed
another respected HAL senior, Prof. C.S. Murthy who said “They won’t make
aeroplanes; There is too much money to be made.”
I will close with one last anecdote which I heard from
Subroto Roy Choudhury who had joined a few months before me. You ask him if it
is true. The work load at that time was not too high and it seemed that one of
the Draughtsmen had wandered over to another Department to chat. One thing led
to another and led to a question of daring from which it transpired that one of
them challenged the other to show what I will call here as his “Family Jewels”.
The items being displayed there was shock and horror (understandable) and a
great storm in a tea cup brewed up. Delegations were formed and there was
outrage on one side and enraged sang froid on the other. Finally the crisis and
the representatives landed up at the Office of the Chief Designer seeking
redress. After keeping them waiting, Dasappa, as he was called behind his back
heard both sides patiently, swelled up like a turkey cock and simply said
“WHOOF”. The message was understood and the parties returned meekly to their
desks. That was Dasappa.
PD Desai
I was known for being an “Äviation Nut” at IIT
Kharagpur so much so that I used to get invited to their technical seminars and
so forth. Sailesh Buch ( now in America) came back from his summer training at
Nashik in 1970 and debriefed me about his training during the course of which
he told me this tale. The MiG 21 Fl had some problems of aileron flutter under
certain flight conditions. Applications to the Russians were met with evasive
responses. It was PD Desai who thought of sticking a small aluminum angle strip
in front of the aileron as a turbulator. It worked like a charm but the local
Russians were extremely annoyed. The modifications were sent to the MiG OKB in
Moscow where after due diligence it came back as a very good “mod”. The same
lot of Russians who had been “greeking” now came up with smiles hugs and a
bouquet and congratulated PDD! I was therefore surprised to read in Air Marshal
Rajkumar’s book where he credits Dr. Kota for the “fix”. If Buch’s account is
right Dr. Kota was just about a GET at that time. Perhaps success really has
many fathers. PD Desai was at that time Chief Designer Nashik having joined HAL
in the ‘fifties and worked on the HF 24 project under the Germans. During a
visit to Nashik in the mid ‘seventies I came across the project study of a
ground attack fighter by PDD. It was an aircraft in some ways similar to the
Lansen.
It is interesting that after thirty years at HAL and
having reached the position of Chief Designer PD Desai shifted to IIT Bombay
circa 1980 as Professor of Aeronautics. The usual gossip at that time was that
this was done to make way so that the next incumbent Dr. Kota could be given
the post. Head of Aircraft Design Bureau would have counted for in his
selection as Project Director LCA. I do not know how PD Desai fared at IIT but
my guess is that it may not have been
too happy. By the 1980s the IITs -which had tried to attract Industry men in
its early days by giving weightage to their practical experience- had switched
to the opposite. Led by the Leftists it was gradually made almost impossible to
have academic freedom. Indeed it is now almost impossible for an Industry man
to join academics but that is another very serious subject that needs
importance on its own.
Baljit Kapoor
Baljit Kapoor was no designer. Baljit Kapoor was the
founding GM of Lucknow factory and after a successful went to Bangalore as the
Chairman of HAL. His keenness to develop HAL can be seen from the fact that
when even after leaving HAL I sent a proposal to improve the Ajeet by
re-engineering it with the GE J85-GE21 he arranged for a meeting with senior HAL
design people.
However I mention Baljeet Kapoor in another context.
He was asked to transfer two hundred HAL designers to the newly formed ADA. He
opposed this and was summarily removed and replaced by Air Marshal LM Katre.
There is an amusing anecdote that a visiting Russian Delegation, apparently,
was confused enough to address the new Chairman also as Mr. Kapoor.
My conclusions from the above are the following.
1.
We
have the men to do the job.
2.
It
is the thinking at Raisina Hill that is crucial for having an aatmanirvar
aeronautical Industry.
3.
If
Sir Sydney Camm was alive today and applied for a job in the Govt. Aeronautical
Establishments the two outcomes would be:
a)
He
would be rejected because he was only a Draughtsman by qualification.
b)
He would be selected with a huge salary
because he was a Western Man.
Both would be wrong in approach. We do not need
foreign consultants. If BAC advice has taken seven years and counting to
correct the spin problem on the sorely needed HJT 36 then we should relook as
to where the drain is clogged. Or else reexamine if foreign consultancy is the answer
if despite expensive consultancy the desired end result - the avoidance of
expensive imports by developing acceptable Indian products - is not being
achieved.
The Socialist Pattern of Society type of thinking just will not work for high technology involving mass production and customer support. It is essential to bring in the Private sector Aeronautical and Automotive sectors with their vast pool of Engineering design talent and apply them to the task.
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