<p>The aircraft took off at 11.10 am and landed 40 minutes later. In the sortie, the Test Pilot, Gp Captain Suneet Krishna, flew the aircraft to an attitude of 11 kms and went supersonic, touching 1.1 Mach speed. Test Director, Group Captain D Chakravorty guided him from the telemetry facility of National Flight Test Centre. <br /><br />For all first flights of prototype aeroplanes, it is a standard operating procedure to have another aircraft chase the aircraft under test. In this case, the chase aircraft was flown by the Chief Test Pilot of NFTC, Gp Capt RR Tyagi with Wing Commander Prabhu as the Test Director. <br /><br />The test flight was supervised by Air Cdre Rohit Varma, the Project Director (Flight Test) at NFTC. The flight was also witnessed by Cdre BS Prahar, who is the ACNS (Air) at Naval HQ. <br /><br />The Indian Navy has a considerable stake in the programme, as they look to replace their Sea Harrier fleet, which is due to be phased out in due course. The flight marks for the first time a Tejas aircraft flying in the configuration that will be finally delivered to the Indian Air Force (IAF). <br /><br />Induction into IAF <br />The aggressive test schedule indicated the confidence of the design team on the robustness of their design. Senior scientists from Aeronautical Development Agency, National Aerospace Laboratories and Aeronautical Development Establishment were involved in the development and flight test planning of the newly integrated flight control software which was used by the test aircraft . <br /><br />Tejas is scheduled for induction into IAF service in December, 2010. ADA programme director, P S Subramanyam said the Tejas team is now heading to central India to carry out hot weather trials. <br />DH News Service</p>
<p>The aircraft took off at 11.10 am and landed 40 minutes later. In the sortie, the Test Pilot, Gp Captain Suneet Krishna, flew the aircraft to an attitude of 11 kms and went supersonic, touching 1.1 Mach speed. Test Director, Group Captain D Chakravorty guided him from the telemetry facility of National Flight Test Centre. <br /><br />For all first flights of prototype aeroplanes, it is a standard operating procedure to have another aircraft chase the aircraft under test. In this case, the chase aircraft was flown by the Chief Test Pilot of NFTC, Gp Capt RR Tyagi with Wing Commander Prabhu as the Test Director. <br /><br />The test flight was supervised by Air Cdre Rohit Varma, the Project Director (Flight Test) at NFTC. The flight was also witnessed by Cdre BS Prahar, who is the ACNS (Air) at Naval HQ. <br /><br />The Indian Navy has a considerable stake in the programme, as they look to replace their Sea Harrier fleet, which is due to be phased out in due course. The flight marks for the first time a Tejas aircraft flying in the configuration that will be finally delivered to the Indian Air Force (IAF). <br /><br />Induction into IAF <br />The aggressive test schedule indicated the confidence of the design team on the robustness of their design. Senior scientists from Aeronautical Development Agency, National Aerospace Laboratories and Aeronautical Development Establishment were involved in the development and flight test planning of the newly integrated flight control software which was used by the test aircraft . <br /><br />Tejas is scheduled for induction into IAF service in December, 2010. ADA programme director, P S Subramanyam said the Tejas team is now heading to central India to carry out hot weather trials. <br />DH News Service</p>
