Prime Minister Narendra Modi began his landmark state visit in the US on Tuesday. According to reports, a strong potential deal to facilitate the transfer of critical engine technology manufactured by General Electric to India is expected. In a multi-million-dollar deal with Hindustan Aeronautics (HAL), it is anticipated that General Electric may produce GE-F414.
As far as reports are concerned, the jet engine is considered the holy grail of aviation tech and everyone wants it. However, very few countries possess it. Experts opine that manufacturing these engines in India will be transformational for the Indian airspace.
The GE-F414 is a cutting age jet engine that empowers the F/A-18 Hornet, the US Navy’s go-to fighter. Reports claim that America is willing to transfer key technology worth up to 80 per cent of the value of the deal. This phenomenon would power the LCA-Mark2, an advanced variant of the made-in-India Light Combat Aircraft (LCA).
The deal reportedly signifies that General Electric will open shop in India in partnership with HAL, to launch the manufacturing processes required to build not just single crystal turbine blades, but also other key components which includes laser drilling for combustion, machining of powder metallurgy and the manufacture of compression discs and blades.
The GE-414-IN6 engine, when manufactured in India, will power India’s indigenous Tejas Mk-2 fighter along with the futuristic AMCA – or Advanced Medium Combat aircraft, a stealth fighter.
Following the deal, the Indian Air Force (IAF) will have reliable and long lasting jet engines that can be overhauled after several thousand hours. The Russian engine needs frequent overhaul at a few hundred hours. As per the experts, the GE engines are lighter, more powerful and more fuel-efficient together with the potential to upgrade for future use. The United States has never allowed the transfer of this level of technology to anyone.
Reports further claim that the State-of-the-art jet engines comprises components that are deeply IPR protected, with manufacturing processes that are top secret. The technology which India might get consists of the coating and machining of single-crystal turbine blades. It is believed that manufacturing the components of jet engine turbines has been a massive engineering challenge throughout the aviation industry. Jet engines are required to retain their shape, strength and efficiency at temperature up to 2000 degrees centigrade. The metal alloys used in older engines, using conventional manufacturing techniques, have reportedly failed at the highest temperatures, as they lost their thermal efficiency.
For More News Read @Bharat18
