Breaking on Tarmak007: Tejas LSP-5 flies finally; Navy Test Pilot Lt Cdr Ankur Jain takes Tejas for a dream flight

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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Tracking the Tejas: Weather holds back LSP-5 flight again today

 

Hyderabad: Despite being cleared by the flight readiness review board and having undertaking the most-tempting high-speed taxi trials (HSTT) a number of times, the maiden flight of the Tejas limited series production (LSP-5) had to be postponed again today (Nov 17). Ruining LSP-5's  sky party in Bangalore was the weather again.

The LSP-5 has been waiting in the wing for more than a week now to kiss the Bangalore skies. This is the 11th test vehicle to joint the flightline of India's light combat aircraft (LCA) program.

"We had prepared the aircrfat ready last night hoping that the weather will clear today. The team was ready even though it is a closed holiday due to Id. Now, we are hoping for the best tomorrow and so that we could fly. Even we had an HSTT today," sources said.
Stay tuned for more updates. Hope the Weather Gods would shift their rain dance venue from Bangalore!

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