Tejas Mark-1A fighter aircraft completes first flight in Bengaluru

The first Tejas Mark-1A fighter aircraft took to the skies from the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) facility in Bengaluru on Thursday. The successful sortie, which flew for 18 minutes, was piloted by HAL’s chief test pilot, Group Captain KK Venugopal (Retd). “HAL achieved this significant production milestone with concurrent design and development… subsequent to the contract signature in February 2021”, said CB Ananthakrishnan, chairman and managing director, HAL.

HAL stated on Thursday: “The country can look forward to early induction of the Tejas Mark-1A by the Indian Air Force (IAF) and more numbers through the three lines of production established at HAL.”