PTI, Bangalore: Tejas, the home grown Light Combat Aircraft, has flown for over 150 hours including 60 supersonic sorties in its development and test phase.
Tejas, being developed by the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), a DRDO outfit here, has completed 255 flights so far, an ADA statement said here today.
Test pilot Sqd Ldr Suneet Krishna, who piloted the maiden flight of the first Prototype Vehicle (PV-1) of Tejas last November, has broken the speed barrier 25 times.
Krishna, who joined the National Flight Testing Centre of ADA in April 2002, has helped the Tejas Design Team in all important decisions in expansion of flight envelope and pilot vehicle interface, it said.
Tejas, which first flew in January 2001, has to fly for over 1,500 hours in five test aircraft to undergo initial certification and about 2,500 hours for full certification, expected by 2007.
Powered by an American GE-404 engine, Tejas is a light weight, delta-winged, fly-by-wire, multi-role supersonic fighter being developed to replace the ageing MiG fleet of the IAF from early next decade.
Two technology demonstrators and one prototype vehicle (PV) have flown so far, and ADA scientists are building the Prototype Vehicle-2 (PV-2), the production standard of the aircraft to fly by next year.
