With a thundering roar the lithe grey Tejas prototype aircraft Serial number KH 2012 took to the air, a sight which the residents of the Bangalore have got well used to now. But this sortie was different – a landmark in Indian aeronautical history for, on this day the Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, Bangalore built Tejas crossed the 1000 sorties mark. A thousand sorties is a very significant milestone in an aircraft’s development programme. and is indicative of the level of maturity the aircraft and the systems have achieved.

The fact that the programme achieved this milestone without any major set backs bears testimony to the skill and competence of all the programme components. In the words of the Programme Director, Mr PS Subramanyam, the Tejas team has become a role model for executing large R&D programmes in the country.

Since the first flight by Technology Demonstrator-1 on 04 Jan 2001 which lasted just 18 minutes, the Tejas programme has come a long way. It was conceived as an ambitious attempt to leap frog nearly 40 years of neglect of Indian aeronautical design. The goal of designing and developing of a state of the art fighter aircraft for use by the Indian Air Force required the bridging of a huge technology gap in multiple disciplines. A cautious phase wise development approach was adopted. The first phase (Full Scale Engineering Development Phase I) was essentially aimed at demonstration of four key technologies namely the quadruplex redundant digital fly by wire system, an all glass cockpit, carbon composite primary structures and microprocessor based control of utility systems.

After having successfully completed the FSED-Phase-I the programme is currently in FSED-Phase-II where in the objective is to deliver an operationally capable aircraft for induction into the IAF and later into the Indian Navy. A total of seven aircraft are currently part of the flight test programme. These include three aircraft from the Technology Demonstration phase (TD1, TD2 and PV1) which continue to undertake flight test tasks of generic nature. The bulk of the workload is however shared by the follow on aircraft (PV2, PV3 and LSP1 and LSP2) which incorporate incremental changes towards the final desired equipment fit. The basic glass cockpit has been tested extensively along with some of the operational sensors like the DASH helmet and Litening laser designation pod.

Initial firing of the R-73 air to air missile has been undertaken and the remaining sensors like the multi-mode radar would also become available very shortly. In the past twelve months itself, the Tejas has been successfully operated from searing hot central Indian airfields at the height of summer as well as the cold and rarified environs of a Ladakh winter. The bulk of the promised flight envelope has also been extensively probed. The Tejas is slated to enter operational service with the IAF by Dec 2010 in the Initial Operational Capability configuration.

Speaking to members of “Team Tejas” after the flight, Capt JA Maolankar who is the Chief Test pilot of the National Flight Test Centre said “For a project that has so ambitiously pushed the envelope of indigenous technology, the results have been world class in many key areas. The aircraft is a pleasure to fly and has demonstrated enviably long range legs for an aircraft so small. The induction of most of the major new technologies has been remarkably smooth and the programme boasts of an enviable safety record. Great challenges lie ahead, especially when we take this aircraft to sea in the form of the LCA (Navy)”.