Date:14/05/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/05/14/stories/2006051417721000.htm

National

Tejas prototype makes supersonic flight

Staff Reporter

BANGALORE: Clocking another milestone, the operational version of the indigenously designed and developed Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas Prototype Version-2 (PV2) was test flown on Saturday for supersonic speed in a "weaponised" state.

The PV2 aircraft had completed its maiden supersonic flight on Friday. The weaponised flight on Saturday lasted 24 minutes. The aircraft was armed with two state-of-the-art air-to-air missiles. The flight indicates LCA's entry into operation flight test pace, according to the Aeronautical Development Agency .

Saturday's flight was piloted by Wing Commander Vikram Singh. Designed as a replacement to Indian Air Force (IAF)'s ageing fleet of Russian-made MiG jets, Tejas is scheduled to be inducted in batches with a 2010 time frame. So far, four LCAs — two technology demonstrators (TD1 and 2) and two prototypes (PV1 and 2) — had logged over 525 flights.

With the Prototype Version 1 (PV1), Tejas completed its 500th flight test on March 9. Incidentally, this was PV1's 115th flight. LCA had its maiden flight on January 4, 2001, when its TD1 version took to the skies. It was showcased at two Aero India international aerospace expositions at the Yelahanka Air Force Station here in 2003 and 2005.