RAJNATH FLIES IN TEJAS
Defence minister Rajnath Singh waves after a 30-minute sortie in light combat aircraft Tejas, at HAL Airport in Bengaluru on Thursday.
NEW DELHI: Defence minister Rajnath Singh on Thursday flew in the indigenously made Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), Tejas, becoming the first defence minister to fly the single-engine fighter.
“I feel thrilled. The flight was smooth and comfortable,” the minister said after the 30-minute long sortie. Singh, who was wearing the anti-gravity suit of the Indian Air Force, said the sortie gave him “first-hand” understanding of the capabilities of the Tejas.
“It was one the most memorable events of my life,” he told mediapersons.
The Tejas is an indigenously built light-weight, multi-role supersonic aircraft developed in both fighter and trainer versions. Recently, a Naval version – fighters that are capable of landing on the deck of an aircraft career – made an arrestorwire landing at a land-based facility in Goa.
As a rule, senior ministers, in particular, the Prime Minister and the Defence Minister, avoid flying single-engine aircraft for safety reasons. In the past, the Presidents and Defence Ministers that have flown fighters with the IAF have stuck to twinengine fighters.
On why he chose the Tejas, an aircraft that was given its Final Operational Clearance (FOC) recently, Singh said, “This is an indigenous plane. Also, I wanted to check the conditions under which the fighter pilots fly. This is why I flew in this aircraft.”
The defence minister also congratulated the Defence Research Organisation (DRDO) and the Aviation Development Agency. “We have reached a level where we can export fighter planes across the world... Countries in South East Asia have shown interest in purchasing Tejas aircraft,” he said.
Talking about his experience of flying with the defence minister, Air Vice Marshal, N Tiwari said, “The Defence Minister controlled the aircraft in the air for about two minutes and he liked it. We went all the way up to 2 to 2.5g (gravitational force unit). But I was showing him more avionics and sophisticated systems that we have onboard like laser designation pod, using which you can pick up targets even from 20-25 km away.”
Air Vice Marshal Tiwari is the LCA Project Director at the National Flight Test Centre, ADA (Aeronautical Development Agency). “We went close to Mach 1, the speed of sound, but he couldn’t make it out. I had to tell him that this is the speed now,” Air Vice Marshal Tiwari said.
The IAF had placed an order with the HAL – the Bengaluru-based Defence Public Sector Unit - for 40 Tejas aircraft.