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Why PAC Needs In-House Development of Flight Control Systems Plus

Major fighter-jet producers have extensive flight dynamics and control groups and invest heavily in flight dynamics and control technologies and human resource. The lack of emphasis on this key technology in the institutional breakup for Project Azm is concerning.

By Syed Aseem Ul Islam · · 14 min read
Author Profile: Syed Aseem Ul Islam is PhD candidate at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA, specializing in adaptive and model-predictive flight control systems. He received his bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from the Institute of Space Technology, Islamabad, and his master’s degree in flight dynamics and control from the University of Michigan.

The JF-17 program has gone a long way in grooming the nascent Pakistani aerospace industry in a big way. The experience that has come with manufacturing large portions of a modern fourth-generation fighter jet has advanced the manufacturing and designing capabilities at Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) many folds.

It is on the success of this program that PAC hopes to embark on Project Azm: an all-encompassing program for the development of an aerospace industry in Pakistan, which includes the development of a fifth-generation fight aircraft (FGFA), a medium altitude long-endurance (MALE) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), munitions, and the required human resource and infrastructure for the development of these systems.

With these lofty goals in mind there is a pressing need for the development of specialist human resource and infrastructure in key areas, which is something that PAC is acutely aware of.

PAC’s website lists the following institutes that can be assumed to reflect the key areas for human resource and infrastructure development for Project Azm:

  • Aviation Design Institute (AvDI),
  • Mission Electronics Design Institute (MEDI),
  • Aero Structures Design Institute (ASDI),
  • Advanced Technologies Centre (ATC),
  • and Flight Test Centre (FTC).

An institute dedicated to aircraft structures is present, but an institute called the Flight Dynamics and Control Institute (FDCI) is absent.

Reading through the details of each of the institutes gives the impression that little or no emphasis has been put on the crucial technology of flight dynamics and control systems design.

Major fighter-jet producers such as Boeing and Lockheed Martin have extensive flight dynamics and control groups and invest heavily in flight dynamics and control technologies and human resource. The lack of emphasis on this key technology in the institutional breakup for Project Azm, is thus, concerning.

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