Navy Chief meets NLCA heroes | NP-2 all set for maiden flight

Navy Chief Admiral R K Dhowan with the heroes of NLCA project Cmde C D Balaji (Retd) Project Director LCA (Navy), extreme left, and Commodore Jaideep Maolankar, extreme right, the pilot who undertook the historic ski-jump of NP-1 from SBTF, Goa.
(Below) Balaji and Maolankar.  Photos: Tarmak007

Navy Chief Admiral R K Dhowan on Saturday met with the Naval LCA team from Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) and congratulated them for the recent successful NP-1 trials in Goa. The NLCA had its maiden flight from the Shore-Based Test Facility (SBTF) in Goa, thereby crossing a critical milestone.

The Navy Chief interacted with Cmde C D Balaji (Retd) Project Director LCA (Navy) and Commodore Jaideep Maolankar, the pilot who undertook the historic ski-jump of NP-1 from SBTF. Later speaking to OneIndia, Cmde Balaji (Retd) said that the second prototype of NLCA (NP-2) will soon have its maiden flight.

“We are done with most of the tests barring a few. We are hopeful that the NP-2 will have its first flight within a weeks’ time,” Cmde Balaji (Retd) told OneIndia. 

Read the detailed story on OneIndia, here: http://bit.ly/1AAZ6vD