HAL conducts maiden flight for advanced LCA Tejas

The first Light Combat Aircraft in FOC standard (SP-21) took to the skies for maiden flight in Bengaluru on Tuesday.

Piloted by Air Cmde KA Muthana (Retd), Chief Test Flying (Fixed Wing), the aircraft took-off from HAL Airport at around 1230 hours. It was airborne for 40 minutes.

"This flight signifies exemplary teamwork between various stakeholders of LCA Tejas programme such as HAL, DGAQA, CEMILAC, IAF, ADA, and others," said R Madhavan, CMD, HAL.

"HAL achieved the momentous feat within a record time of 12 months after the release of the Drawing Applicability List (DAL) and SOP by CEMILAC. This would pave way for the production of the remaining 15 fighters from the FOC block which are planned to be delivered during the next financial year," read an official statement.

The FOC aircraft are equipped with advanced features such as Air-to-Air refuelling, Beyond Visual Range (BVR) missile system, etc.

"It imbibes a lot of manufacturing improvements that were based on the operational feedback of the LCA IOC fleet with IAF," noted the release.