Country’s esteemed Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas has added another feather to its cap. On Thursday, the LCA Tejas programme logged a remarkable landmark accomplishing 1002 flights.

With this, the Tejas team has become a role model for executing large R&D programmes in the country.

Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) said that the maneuver lasted about 30 minutes and was carried out by Group Captain JA Maolankar, chief test pilot of the National Flight Test Centre.

It may be here recalled that since its first flight which lasted just 18 minutes in January 2001, the Tejas programme has envisaged as a splendid effort to leapfrog nearly 40 years of neglect of Indian aeronautical design.

Speaking on this, programme director MS Subramanyam said, “That the programme achieved this milestone without any major setbacks bears testimony to the skill and competence of all the programme components. The Tejas team has become a role model for executing large R&D programmes in the country.”

After the flourishing conclusion of its first phase, the programme is now into Phase-II, which aims to carry an operationally capable aircraft for induction into the Indian Air Force (IAF) and later into the Indian Navy.

At present, a total of seven aircraft are the part of the flight test programme.

It is believed that the Tejas would enter operational service by December 2010 with Initial Operational Clearance.

In his keynote address, Capt JA Maolankar, Chief Test Pilot of the National Flight Test Centre, said, “For a project that has so ambitiously pushed the envelope of indigenous technology, the results have been world-class in many key areas."