Mechanical engineer & alumnus of IIM-A & IAS France, Kota was General Manager in HAL’s Light Combat Aircraft division. He was selected from a pool of eight candidates.
Dubai airshow crash & pilot death have rekindled concerns over pilot safety, and need for smarter automated systems that can step in when G-forces, temporary loss of consciousness hit the pilot.
Taylor ‘Fema’ Hiester, commander of USAF F-16 Viper Demo Team, hit out at air show organisers for continuing with the show after Wing Commander Namansh Syal lost his life in the incident.
Speaking to ThePrint, Salman Akram urges dignity in tragedy, recalling the loss of his brother, Wing Commander Nauman Akram, in similar crash & the mockery his family faced after.
Airshows are thrilling spectacles of aviation skill and engineering marvels. But they carry inherent risks as the crew is pushing the aircraft, and themselves, to perform at the edges of the envelope.
It is a brilliant, reasonably priced, and mostly homemade aircraft with a stellar safety record; only two crashes in 24 years since its first flight. But its crash is a moment of introspection.
While the IAF remains committed to the Tejas programme and has placed orders for 180 Tejas Mk1A, the force is eagerly waiting for the Tejas Mk 2 version.
There were no plans to have Mk1A version. However, compromise was reached between HAL & IAF in 2015 since original plan for getting Mk2 would've been time-consuming affair.
DMK govt accuses Centre of withholding funds, tightening borrowing, unilateral deductions from state accounts. Says Centre's accounting & funding decisions have 'artificially inflated' debt burden.
This is the game every nation is now learning to play. Some are finding new allies or seeing value among nations where they’d seen marginal interest. The starkest example is India & Europe.
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