HAL Tejas

what is it?

The HAL Tejas (lit. 'Radiant') is an Indian single-engine, 4.5 generation, delta wing, multirole combat aircraft designed by the Aeronautical Development Agency and manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) for the Indian Air Force (IAF) and the Indian Navy. The aircraft made its first flight in 2001 and entered into service with the IAF in 2015. It is the smallest and lightest of the supersonic fighter jets of its generation.

🔎How to recognise it: 1 jet engine · 8.2 m wingspan

base stats

• speed 2,220 km/htop speed
• size 13.5 tmax take-off weight
• built 84made in total

Bars compare against all aircraft: 3,500 km/h, 20,000 km, 850 seats; size and number built on a log scale up to 640 t (An-225) and 45,000 built (Cessna 172).

fun facts

• 🎂First flew 25 years ago, in 2001.
• 🏎️Top speed is 17.1× a car on the Dutch motorway (130 km/h).
• 💥Faster than sound: up to Mach 1.8 (sea-level speed of sound ≈ 1,235 km/h).
• 🐘Fully loaded it can weigh as much as 2 African elephants (~6 t each).
• 🏔️Can fly 1.8× higher than Mount Everest (8,849 m).

jet: Gas turbine pushing air out the back (turbofan or turbojet): fast and high-flying.

spec sheet

first flight

2001-01-04

introduced

2016

status

still flying

number built

84

role

multirole light fighter

origin

🇮🇳 India

makers

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited

engines

1× General Electric F404-GE-IN20

crew

1

length

13.2 m

wingspan

8.2 m

height

4.4 m

max take-off weight

13.5 t

top speed

2,220 km/h

range

—

ceiling

16,000 m

Specs are for the version in the Wikipedia article's specification section. Blank means the sources don't say.