IAF may restructure jet pilot training

The IAF may be forced to junk its transitional training for rookie fighter pilots because of Hindustan Aeronautics' continuing failure to deliver its Sitara intermediate jet trainer (IJT), which was first sanctioned in 1999 but still cannot stall-and-spin.

Stall-and-spin is one of the critical maneuvers used to transform rookie cadets into top-gun fighter pilots in the inherently-dangerous art of combat flying.

It teaches them how to handle emergencies, hold their nerve and retrieve their planes from a spin, as was depicted in Shashi Kapoor's film Vijeta of the early-1980s.

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