Nearly two years since its roll out during which there were a number of postponements, on April 27, 2012, India’s Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Naval Prototype 1 finally took off from the airport at Hindustan Aeronautics Limited, Bangalore for its 20-minute maiden flight. The aircraft was piloted by the Chief Test Pilot of National Flight Test Centre Air Commodore T A Maolankar assisted by co-pilot by Wing Commander M Prabhu. While the Indian Navy would like to have the aircraft at the earliest possible, as per the development agency, the Initial Operational Clearance for the Naval version would come only in 2014.
Commenting on its success, Scientific Advisor to the Defence Minister V K Saraswat said the flight has given them a place among a few select nations, capable of developing and testing a fourth generation aircraft with Ski Take-Off But Arrested Recovery (STOBAR). Carrier compatibility would be checked by December 2012. The project had been allocated Rs 1,900 crore for the Limited Series Production and the developers maintain that there would be no cost overruns even though the Indian Navy had approved the building of another platform for testing.