The maiden flight of Tejas LSP-5 on November 19, 2010.
Hyderabad: Tejas LSP-5 finally had its maiden flight at Old Bangalore Airport today. It took off at 10:55 am and landed safely at 11.35 am. It went up to 11 km at a max speed of .8 Mach and pulled up to 4 G. IRC and full after-burner were used. "We have done all test points. It flew for 40 minutes. It's a great day for us," Tejas Program chief P.S. Subramanayam tells Tarmak007 from Bangalore.
DRDO chief Dr V.K. Saraswat told Tarmak007 during the Aerospace Conclave in Hyderabad that, the scientists and engineers couldn't have asked for more. "I am being told that the LSP-5 was a dream flight," Dr Saraswat said.
LSP-5 was piloted by Lt Cdr Ankur Jain of LCA Navy Team at NFTC and the chase aircraft was a PV-3 piloted by Gp Capt Thomas.
Stay tuned for an official release from DRDO.
(The official DRDO Press Release below, issued at 4:22 pm)
Tejas, India’s Light Combat Aircraft, in its march towards operational status, achieved an important milestone today when the fifth Limited Series Production (LSP-5) aircraft made historic first flight. LSP5 aircraft is the first LCA in the Operational Configuration for the Indian Air Force.
The LSP-5 was piloted by test pilot Lt Cdr Ankur Jain, from the Indian Navy. The aircraft took off at 1054 hours and achieved a max speed of 0.8 mach, 4G turns, and an altitude of 11 km during the 40 min flight.
The flight was uneventful and all systems functioned normally, clearing all the test points.
This is the culmination of the efforts of all the stakeholders viz., HAL, IAF, DRDO Labs, Defence PSUs, CEMILAC, DGAQA and Aeronautical Development Agency. This has been a great team effort to get the final standard aircraft in the flight line.
The LSP-5 first flight was directed by Wg Cdr Sreedharan Toffeen, Test Director. Gp Capt G Thomas, Chief Test Pilot of the National Flight Test Centre (NFTC) piloted the chase aircraft.
This is another proud moment for ‘Team Tejas’ taking the endeavour close the Initial Operational Capabilities.
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