Ratan Tata repeats flying feat at 74

Ratan Tata, Chairman of the Tata Group, was the centre of attraction on the second day of Aero India 2011 by flying in a fighter jet. The 74-year old veteran of the Indian corporate world surprised everybody by flying in a F/A-18 of Boeing, repeating a feat he’d demonstrated in 2007.

“It takes a lot more to fly the F-18 as compared to a Falcon,” said Tata after returning to the ground.

The flight, piloted by Mike Wallace, saw Tata experiencing close to 7G — seven times the normal gravity force on the body. He’d undergone just the normal pre-flight briefing, without much of the medical tests. “We did some aerobatics and we went high….I would love to do it again,” he said.

A known aviation enthusiast and a regular at the Aero India shows, he made the first dramatic entry in the 2007 edition, having co-piloted both the F-16 and F-18 on successive days.

Bollywood actor Shahid Kapur is expected to fly on the F-16 of the Lockheed Martin on Saturday at the Aero India show. The previous edition of Aero India had witnessed the only individual Olympic gold medalist from India, Abhinav Bindra, flying in a F-16.