Light combat aircraft makes maiden landing on sea-borne aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 11

The naval variant of the Light Combat Aircraft, the Tejas, made a maiden successful landing on the deck of sea-borne aircraft carrier INS Vikramaditya on Saturday morning.

The landing on the deck paves the way for further development of the twin-engine deck-based fighter jet. 

The Navy tweeted about the successful landing saying it occurred around 10 am on Saturday as the carrier was sailing in the Arabian Sea as part of the exercise.

Landing on the deck of a fighter jet is a complex procedure; the landing space is some 200 metres and the jet coming in to land has to be restrained using a set of three ‘arrestor wires’. In navy parlance it is called ‘arrested landing’.

The landing gear of a naval jet is different from the jets used by the IAF. The under-carriage has to be strong enough to be held back by the arrestor wires.

The plane being developed by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) was tested for arrested landing at the navy shore-based test facility which is built to mimic the deck of an aircraft carrier.