The first aircraft LA5033 of the Tejas Mk1A series successfully soared in the sky after taking off from the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) facility in Bengaluru on Thursday, the public sector aerospace and defence company said.
According to HAL, the Tejas Mk1A aircraft did a successful sortie with a flying time of 18 minutes. The plane was piloted by Chief Test Pilot Group Captain K K Venugopal (Retired).
HAL achieved this significant production milestone with concurrent design and development amid major supply chain challenges in the global geopolitical environment, subsequent to the contract signature in February 2021, HAL Chief Managing Director C B Ananthakrishnan said.
