On October 17, about 800 people of the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) gathered at Nashik in Maharashtra. They sat flanking the runway of HAL’s facility, witness to the maiden flight of the Light Combat Aircraft Tejas Mk1A. There, they watched three aircraft roar into the sky: a trainer on which pilots learn, a Russia-origin Sukhoi Su-30, and the new Light Combat Aircraft Tejas Mk1A. After some manoeuvres in the sky, the aircraft landed, and the Tejas was ‘christened’: Two fire engines stood on either side of the runway and saluted it with water cannons.
On September 26, 2025, over 1,300 km away at Chandigarh Air Force Station, Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh, India’s Chief of Air Staff, taxied onto the runway. Then in a swoosh, he and two others soared into the skies in MiG-21 Bisons, flying in the badal , or inverted-V formation. Thunderous applause erupted from more than 1,000-odd people who has gathered there. Veterans, pilots, engineers, and all those who had once been part of the aircraft’s journey, bid it goodbye.
The farewell reached its symbolic conclusion when the commanding officers
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