Indian Navy Light Combat Aircraft 1st Ski Jump Test Flight

The facility in Goa, India




The first prototype of the light combat aircraft Tejas' Naval version — LCA NP-1 — completed its maiden flight as part of the carrier compatibility tests at the shore-based test facility INS Hansa in Goa at 12.34pm on Saturday.

LCA-Navy is the second Ski Take Off But Arrested Recovery (STOBAR ) carrier-borne aircraft in the world, after a Russian deck based aircraft. And, this will be the only Carrier borne Fighter aircraft in the Light category.

Piloted by Commodore Jaideep Maolankar, the Chief Test Pilot of National Flight Test Centre (NFTC), the aircraft had a perfect flight test result parameters matching the expected results.