Air force chief flies high in Tejas

IAF has placed an order of 120 light-combat aircraft

Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha on Tuesday flew the home-grown light-combat aircraft Tejas, officially signalling to the Indian Air Force pilots to begin flying the fourth-generation fighter in their squadrons.

Raha, with over 3,400 hours of flying experience, took off on a trainer for a 25-minute sortie over the Bengaluru skies.

“It shows the commitment of the IAF towards the aircraft,” said Kota Harinarayana, the chief designer and former programme head of the Tejas aircraft. “In the years to come, the Tejas will be the backbone of the Indian Air Force (IAF). They have committed to an order for 120 aircraft. It is now for the production agency to deliver."

The test pilots of IAF's Aircraft and Systems Testing Establishment (ASTE), the school that tests and certifies every aircraft type used by the force, have flown the single-engine supersonic fighter over 3,145 sorties, according to the Aeronautical Development Agency.

The aircraft is powered by a GE-404 engine and an advanced version that will see modifications in the structure. It will have a more powerful GE-414 power plant made by General Electric.

Tejas uses fly-by wire technology that enables a pilot to control the plane electronically through on-board computers.

Since the first flight of the light-combat aircraft’s (LCA’s) technology demonstrator in January 2001, Tejas has flown sorties across regions in India, including desert and high altitude in the Himalayas have been without any mishap - a rarity in new aircraft testing globally.  

The first squadron of Tejas will be raised at the IAF’s Sulur base in Coimbatore by July. The air force expects to raise six squadrons of the homegrown fighter in a decade. Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, the public sector plane maker will manufacture the aircraft at its facility in Bengaluru.

“The aircraft has to be inducted. Only then will you actually able to use the platform effectively,” said Harinarayana.

Air Chief Marshal Raha’s sortie on the trainer aircraft also shows the confidence in the force for the aircraft, once dismissed as a dud project of the DRDO. Kota Harinarayana.