Rajnath Singh on Thursday became the first Defence Minister to fly in the indigenously designed and built Tejas light combat aircraft (LCA) Tejas. A "thrilled" Singh described the 30-minute experience as "one of the most memorable events my life." He even controlled and flew the aircraft for full two minutes in the two-seater jet which undertook the sortie at the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL)airport in Bengaluru.
Incidentally, his predecessors George Fernandes and Nirmala Sitharaman had flown in MIG-21 and SU-30 respectively. But no Defence Minister so far had flown in the Tejas which is now in the process of induction in the IAF with a batch of 40 jets. The induction will boost the air defence capabilities of the force.
After the sortie, Singh said he chose the aircraft because it was built indigenously and described the flying experience as thrilling. "Flight very smooth, comfortable, I was thrilled. It was one of the most memorable events of my life," said the 68-year-old Singh after alighting from the aircraft.
"This is an indigenous plane. So, it came naturally to me to fly in Tejas and experience the flying. It was also to check under what conditions do our fighter pilots fly these aircraft. This is why I flew in this aircraft," the Minister said.
Wearing a G suit, holding his helmet under his arms and sporting aviator glasses, Singh looked every inch a fighter pilot.
Visibly impressed by the performance of the plane which over the years came under lot of criticism due to repeated delays thereby adding to the cost of the first indigenously designed fighter jet, Singh said, "I want to congratulate HAL, DRDO and several agencies concerned.
We have reached a level where we can export fighter planes across the world...Countries in South East Asia have shown interest in purchasing Tejas aircraft," he said.
An official said the Minister also "controlled" and flew the aircraft for around two minutes. However, the minister said he was following orders."But those two minutes were memorable," he said. In a tweet, Singh said: "The 'G-Suit' and 'Tejas': It was a memorable experience. Thank you @IAF_MCC @HALHQBLR & @DRDO_India for this proud moment."
"Special thanks to AVM, N Tiwari, who is also the Project Director, National Flight Test Centre, ADA (Aeronautical Development Agency) for the sortie," he said. Air Vice Marshal Tiwari, who is the also the Project Director, National Flight Test Centre, Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), Bengaluru, flew the aircraft.
Talking about his experience of flying with the Defence Minister, Tiwari said, "Raksha Mantri (Defence Minister) was flying the aircraft in the air (for 2 minutes), and he liked it. We went all the way up to 2 to 2.5g. But I was showing him more avionics and sophisticated systems that we have on board like laser designation pod, using which you can pick up targets even from 20-25 km away."
When a person is standing still on earth, the amount of force exerted by earth's gravitational field is "one g". Fighter pilots have to bear higher number of g's as they fly at high speed and altitude.
Tiwari said the Minister was very happy with the flying quality, "the smoothness, the controls, and the way the aircraft was flying".
He also said the jet went close to Mach 1, the speed of sound but the minister could not make it. 'I had to tell him that this is the speed now," Tiwari added.
