Fuselage of Rafale fighter jet to be made in India; Dassault-TASL ink deal
The main body of the Rafale fighter jet will now be made in India. It is called the fuselage. India’s Tata Advanced Systems Limited (TASL) has signed four production transfer agreements with French company Dassault Aviation for this.
Rafale’s first fuselage unit will come out of the assembly line in 2028. The manufacturing plant being built in Hyderabad. This partnership of Tata and Dassault will increase the participation of private companies in India’s defense sector.
Dassault said that this project is a big step in defense cooperation between India and France. This will increase the ability to manufacture defense equipment in India and local engineers will get an opportunity to learn world-class technology. This will be the first time that the main body of Rafale will be made outside France.
Tata already makes parts of Rafale
Tata Group already manufactures parts of aircraft like Rafale and Mirage 2000 in collaboration with Dassault. Tata Advanced Systems CEO Sukaran Singh said, “This partnership is a big step in India’s aircraft manufacturing journey.
Making the entire main body of Rafale in India shows how much confidence is growing in the capabilities of Tata Advanced Systems and how strong our relationship with Dassault Aviation is.
This is also proof that India has made tremendous progress in creating a modern and robust aerospace manufacturing system that can support the world’s largest platforms.”
What is an aircraft fuselage?
The aircraft fuselage is the main structure or body of the airplane, which is the largest and most important part of the aircraft. In simple words, it is the part of the airplane to which all the other parts (such as wings, tail, engine) are attached. It gives the aircraft its shape and keeps the rest of the parts together.
The fuselage of a supersonic fighter jet is thin and smooth, so that there is less air resistance while flying at high speed. On the other hand, the fuselage of an airliner i.e. a passenger plane is much wider because it has to carry more passengers.
In a fighter jet, the cockpit is on the upper part of the fuselage. Weapons are mounted on the wings and the engine and fuel are kept in the rear part of the fuselage. On the other hand, in an airliner, the pilot sits in the cockpit at the front of the fuselage. Passengers and luggage are in the rear part of the fuselage and fuel is stored in the wings.
