Tejas Flying Record World’s Best, Criticism Unfortunate: Air Marshal Philip Rajkumar
Air Marshal Rajkumar stated, "Tejas is a wonderful aircraft with the finest flying record in the world." “Over 5,000 developmental flights have been c
Editorial Staff
Tejas Flying Record World’s Best, Criticism Unfortunate: Air Marshal Philip Rajkumar
Flying the indigenous Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas last February was a once-in-a-lifetime event for Air Marshal Philip Rajkumar (Retd), who turned 80 on Sunday. Not because the 78-year-old former Indian Air Force officer was the oldest man to fly the Tejas at the time. But since he had watched the plane grow from a concept to a fully functioning fighter from the beginning. He was in the cockpit of the Tejas for the first 98 flights as a test pilot. Air Marshal Rajkumar stated, "Tejas is a wonderful aircraft with the finest flying record in the world." “Over 5,000 developmental flights have been completed without a single mishap.” Rajkumar, who joined the IAF in 1962 and retired in 2001, is one of the IAF's most experienced test pilots. Rajkumar was sent to the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) — an autonomous agency under the Defence Research & Development Organisation (DRDO) created in 1984 — to oversee the flight testing of the LCA in September 1994, when he wa…
