India test flies naval variant of LCA

India on Friday joined an elite club of countries by test flying the naval variant of its Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) in this tech hub under a partially cloudy sky.

"With the successful maiden flight of the LCA's naval variant, India joins an elite club of countries capable of designing, developing, manufacturing and testing the fourth generation carrier borne fly-by-wire ski take off but arrested recovery (Stobar) aircraft," said VK Saraswat, scientific advisor to the Defence Minister.

The 20-minute test sortie of the advanced fighter's first naval prototype (NP-1) was piloted by chief test pilot of the Indian Air Force's (IAF) national flight test centre (NFTC) Commodore TA Maolankar and co-piloted by the centre's flight test engineer, Wing Commander Maltesh Prabhu.

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