MoD STATEMENT: The Light Combat Aircraft(LCA) Tejas Programme witnessed yet another milestone today with the first flight of its trainer PV6. The two-seater version took to the skies at 1336 hrs and was piloted by Gr Capt Vivart Singh along with Gp Capt Anoop Kabadwal. This is the 16th Tejas variant to have flown as part of the project.
The aim of this flight was to check the twin cockpit functionality which is similar to series production two- seater aircraft. All systems functioned as expected during the 36 minute flight. PV6 is the second two- seater and has the capability to deliver all air to air and air to ground weapons as required by the Indian Air Force for the Final Operational Clearance.
The PV6 has absorbed all the major design modifications undertaken during the last 2500 plus flights in the programme. This is the final prototype leading to series production trainer.
Test Director Commander Jitendra Raturi, Safety Pilot Ritu Raj Tyagi, ADA Director P.S. Subramanyam, NFTC Chief Test Pilot Cmde J.A. Maolankar and LCA Navy Project Director Cmde C D Balaji (Retd) were present at the telemetry monitoring centre.