Second limited series production, Tejas LCA flies at supersonic speeds on maiden flight

Bangalore: The second limited series production (LSP-2), Tejas Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) flew at supersonic speeds on its maiden test flight over Bangalore skies on Monday evening.

"This is the second time a Tejas aircraft has flown at a speed of 1.1 Mach (1,320 km per hour) up to an altitude of 9.5 km in a maiden flight lasting 43 minutes," the state-run Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) said in a statement on late Monday.

The LSP-2 was flown by ADA's national flight test centre (NFTC) pilot, Wing Commander N Tiwari. As is the practice, the LCA was chased by another Tejas prototype version-3 (PV-3) piloted by Wing Commander RR Tyagi.

The flight test was monitored from NFTC's telemetry station at the state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) airport in the eastern suburb of the city.

"The maiden flight of LSP-2 is significant on several accounts. This is the second limited series production aircraft that rolled out of the LSP hangar of HAL. It is also the first aircraft powered by the new GE404-IN20 engine and has a new ejection seat version - the Martin Baker Mk 16LG," the aerospace agency said.

The first eight limited series production Tejas aircraft are due to be delivered to the Indian Air Force (IAF) and Indian Navy between 2010 and 2012 and will be fitted with the IN20 engines supplied by the US-based manufacturer, General Electric.