Bangalore: The second prototype of the Tejas combat aircraft (PV2) entered the flight test phase here on Thursday. It was flown by Wing Commander Vikram Singh of the Flight Test Centre, Aeronautical Development Agency.

The maiden flight, which took off at 10.10 a.m., was successful and met all test objectives, informed sources in the Defence Research and Development Organisation said.

"The capability of Tejas as a flying platform has already been demonstrated with 474 flight tests carried out using two technology demonstrators and one prototype aircraft." Tejas has done flypasts at international aerospace expositions over the past two years. During the Aero India show here earlier this year, it performed aerobatic displays twice a day.

Tejas PV2 represents a quantum jump in terms of its build standard. It is a software-intensive fourth generation combat aircraft built to production standard. Besides a high percentage of composite materials in its airframe structure, it has an advanced, integrated, modular avionics system with open architecture concepts to facilitate easy hardware and software upgrades and reusability.

The avionics system is seen to provide excellent pilot-vehicle interface in a glass cockpit with a panoramic view to reduce workload and increase situational awareness, according to the DRDO. This should come in handy in combat situations.

The maiden flight is considered a landmark in the Tejas Full-Scale Engineering Development Programme. Flying and testing of this prototype are expected to lead to induction of the first batch of production standard light combat aircraft in the Indian Air Force.

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