Bangalore: Lok Sabha MP Naveen Jindal took to the skies as he co-piloted Dassault’s Rafael fighter aircraft on the third day of the Aero India 2011 show here.
Jindal, who holds a commercial pilot’s license, said that the fighter plane went upto 50,000 feet high.
“It was an amazing experience for me and when the aircraft takes off the amount of thrust and speed that you feel its like you can not feel anywhere. It feels like a rocket or like a bullet that has been fired. So, that’s the most amazing feeling,” said Jindal.
Jindal is the third celebrity to fly a combat aircraft during the air show.
Indian ace shooter and Olympic gold medalist Abhinav Bindra flew fighter jet F-16 Super Viper of the US aerospace major Lockheed Martin Thursday, while India’s only cosmonaut Wing Commander (retd) Rakesh Sharma co-piloted Super Hornet on Friday.
Ace Indian cricketer Rahul Dravid also visited the air show and was seen enjoying the fighter jets at the show.
12/02/11 ANI/Sify.com
Posts Tagged 'France'
Naveen Jindal flies French Rafael at Bangalore’s Aero India show
Published February 12, 2011 Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: Defence, France, Rafael
Dogfight over $10b fighter deal
Published February 11, 2011 Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: Defence, Eurofighter, Eurofighter. Rafale, f16in, fA 18, France, Gripen, MMRCA, Sweden, US
It’s the biggest fighter jet import order in a long time, and for a long time. It’s the deal the world’s great military-industrial powers have been waiting to clinch — the Indian Air Force’s Medium Multi-Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) purchase that could fetch the deal winner over $ 10 billion. And with Air Chief Marshal P.V. Naik saying he expected India to have signed off on the deal by September, the dogfight between the contenders is intensifying.
Signs of that intensification were more than apparent during the Aero India show at the Yelahanka Air Force Station on Thursday, with some of the contenders — Lockheed Martin (F-16IN), Boeing (F/A-18), EADS (Eurofighter Typhoon), the French Dassault (Rafale), SAAB (Gripen) — making light or dismissing outright competitors.
Officials of the European contenders mocked Lockheed Martin’s apparently recent bid to let the F-35 Fifth Generation fighter among the contending Fourth Generation fighters, saying that it was a sign of the F-16IN losing altitude in the contest.
Lockheed Martin officials, in turn, seemed to be dismissing fellow US giant Boeing’s bid to win the contract for its F/A-18 Super Hornet by dangling a ‘roadmap of future development’ of the aircraft that would give it Fifth Generation characteristics and keep the jet relevant for the next several decades.
Asked about concerns over America’s willingness to transfer technology, Mr. Prins said, “The IAF’s request for proposal stipulated technology transfer in five categories in four phases. Our proposal is fully compliant.
11/02/11 Deccan Chroniclehte
51 Mirage 2000s will be upgraded
Published February 11, 2011 Uncategorized Leave a CommentTags: Defence, France, Mirage 2000
The deal to upgrade the existing fleet of 51 Mirage-2000s would be finalised in the coming financial year.
Talking to reporters on the second day of the eighth edition of Aero India, Air Chief Marshal PV Naik said India and France had moved closer to the deal in December 2010. The deal has been hanging fire for close to three years after it was cleared by the ministry of defence’sdefence acquisition council during French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s first visit to India in January 2008.
The deal involves integration of advanced multimode pulse doppler radar and fire-and-forget missiles, jointly by French Dassault and Thales along with Indian DPSU Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. Other features, as given out by Air Marshal R K Sharma on Thursday, include modern glass cockpit, new avionics, EW equipment, new weapons and sensors.
11/02/11 Suman Sharma/Daily News & Analysis
