Tejas LSP-5 has flown finally after its first flight was held up by inclement weather for a couple of days. This is in the final IOC configuration, and incorporates some changes to the cockpit and has NVG compatible cockpit as well. And I’m guessing that the colour scheme seen in this pic may be the one that we’ll see all IAF Tejas’ in, with dark ghost grey on the dorsal side, lighter ghost gray on the ventral side and even lighter ghost gray radome..a slight variation on the somewhat lighter Tipnis gray scheme seen on most other IAF aircraft nowadays.

Tejas, India’s Light Combat Aircraft, achieved an important milestone today when the fifth Limited Series Production (LSP-5) aircraft made first flight. LSP5 aircraft is the first LCA in the Operational Configuration for the Indian Air Force.

The LSP-5 was piloted by test pilot Lt Cdr Ankur Jain, from the Indian Navy. The aircraft took off at 1054 hours and achieved a max speed of 0.8 mach, 4G turns, and an altitude of 11 km during the 40 min flight.

The flight was uneventful and all systems functioned normally, clearing all the test points.

The LSP-5 first flight was directed by Wg Cdr Sreedharan Toffeen, Test Director. Gp Capt G Thomas, Chief Test Pilot of the National Flight Test Centre (NFTC) piloted the chase aircraft.

Frontier India link

apparently not.

Aroor’s excellent Article on the AMCA

http://livefist.blogspot.com/2010/11/exclusive-official-wishlist-of.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FUQMw+%28LiveFist+-+The+Best+of+Indian+Defence%29

he doesn’t have the brains to write all that. Its taken from a DRDO report and with a few words of his own.

the J-10s look very spiffy in that colour scheme ! any video of that demo ?

LSP-5 to fly anytime soon as per Ananth Krishnan’s blog..

The fifth platform from Tejas LSP block (LSP-5) will kiss the sky any time now. Team Tejas seems to have sorted out last-minute issues and the flight might take place any time now, weather-permitting. “The flight is expected any moment. We are closing in on,” says a source.
The flight readiness review board is said to have given the go-ahead on November 11, barring some test-points. “All we need is a clear sky,” says the official.

Deino, what is the difference between this LIFT variant and the L-15 variant ? Why the longer nose ? Are they fitting any new avionics in there for training, such as a radar?

Vikas it does matter. The IAF inducting F-16 Block 60 in 2014 when the PAF is just getting F-16 Block 52s from the US would not give the most cozy feeling even to the IAF. Otherwise I cannot see how the F-16IN might not have made it to the shortlist since performance wise it is a strong performer. Maybe the IAF may also have given some marks for future upgrade possibilities and the F-16 will be lagging behind the rest in this regard, perhaps even behind the MiG-35 since at least its a larger platform with possibly more internal volume still available..BTW, back in the old days when the F-16 Block 50 was competing with the Mirage-2000-5 and Gripen C/D, Air Marshal Ahluwahlia had given presentations on how the attrition rate of the F-16s was higher than that of the Mirage. I’ll try to find a link on that article.