LCA

India’s Tejas Light Combat Aircraft is moving closer to its planned December 2010 induction into the Indian air force, following the April 23 first flight of Limited Series Production (LSP) No. 3, the ninth test aircraft to join the flight program. LSP-3 is close to the final configuration of the aircraft, including new avionics, an Israeli Multi-Mode Radar (Aerospace DAILY, April 23), new communication and navigation equipment, and a radar warning receiver. Wing Cmdr. G. Thomas of the National Flight Test Center at India’s Aeronautical Development Agency piloted LSP-3. The 52-min. flight took off from Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.’s airport in Bangalore and all objectives were met, according to a statement. With this flight the nine aircraft have logged about 800 hr. in the air.