New Delhi, Dec. 31 -- India has long had the distinction of training its own experimental test pilots (and engineers), the only country outside the West to do so. Perspective planning by some of India's senior Air Commanders in the 1950s resulted in the first three IAF fighter pilots being trained as TPs in England, some later went to France and just a few, to the United States. From the early 1970s, the IAF has trained its own ETPs at the Aircraft & Systems Testing Establishment (ASTE), in Bangalore as reviewed in this exclusive article by one of India's pioneer Test Pilots, Gp. Capt. Kapil Bhargava.
The Indian aircraft industry began in December 1940 with the birth of Hindustan Aircraft Limited (HAL). During World War II, HAL did great ...