Major Milestone In Tejas Program: LCA Trainer Completes Successful Sortie In Maiden Flight

A video of the LCA Trainer taking to the skies was shared by HAL on its Twitter account.

In a major milestone for the LCA Tejas program, the first-ever series production standard LCA Trainer manufactured by HAL successfully completed a sortie in its maiden flight on Tuesday.

"The first ever series production standard LCA Trainer (LT 5201) took to the skies for its maiden flight on April 5 from HAL airport and landed after completing a successful sortie of around 35 minutes," HAL said in a statement.

A video of the LCA Trainer taking to the skies was shared by HAL on its Twitter account.

The LCA Trainer will be used as training aircraft for pilots who have completed advanced training. The Tejas FOC Trainer is part of the Tejas Mk-1A program. There are plans to produce a total of 10 LCA Tejas FOC Trainers, reports said.

The Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) Tejas is a 4.5 generation, all-weather and multi-role fighter aircraft. LCA Mk1A is the most advanced version of the LCA Tejas.

The development comes weeks after a successful flight-test of power take off (PTO) shaft was conducted on the Light Combat Aircraft Tejas in Bengaluru, the Defence Ministry said in a statement. 

READ | India To Fully Indigenise Tejas Fighter Jet ‘Very Soon’: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh

The PTO shaft is indigenously designed and developed by Combat Vehicles Research and Development Establishment (CVRDE), Chennai, of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

The statement said the maiden successful flight-test of the PTO shaft was conducted on LCA Tejas Limited Series Production (LSP)-3 aircraft. The PTO is a critical equipment that transmits power from aircraft engine to gearbox. It will support the requirements of future fighter aircraft and their variants and offer competitive cost and reduced time of availability.

With this successful test, the DRDO has achieved a greater technological feat by realisation of complex high-speed rotor technology that only a few countries have achieved.

In February, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said efforts are on to make Light Combat Aircraft Tejas fully indigenous, and that it will be done "very soon".