India Goes Airborne – MARIETTA, Ga., Oct. 5, 2010 – The first of six C-130J Super Hercules for India took to the skies for its maiden flight yesterday. The aircraft will now complete a series of company and customer flight tests prior to delivery in December. The second and third aircraft are due to fly within the next few weeks.
ohh god you can see the rainbow formed 🙂
this pic gonna get on some magazine cover 🙂
Damn…that's a sweet looking bird! Good choice, India.
I have to agree on the "Rainbow" pic–we'll be seeing more of it in the coming months I'm sure.
Can someone comment on the time between contract signed and the first flight? How does this compare with similar projects around the world? Would we have achieved equal or better performance at home (of course is this a hypothetical question)? I the time was short, would it be because of the fact that C-130 line has been running for many decades, thus not much time needed for the set-up.
That's Amazing… I love India…
Great Aircraft chosen by India. New Tech for India. Right choice of aircraft for special missions..
Looks like an established aerospace company making planes for decades faking to be a newbie. Nice ploy call an existing plane with small modifications a new "J" model and pop champagne vigorously as if a new plane has been built. Do they understand difference between regular production and R&D project?
Many countries have ordered for it.
Beautiful photos. A sheer delight.
anon@11:13 pm
i think a point to consider is that its being produced by a private company which has to look at the balance sheet at the end of the day, delays do not help put them in the black.
@ Anon 12: 12 AM.
Boston Consulting Group has a product matrix index. Read up on that to understand product life cycle. This is a very vast subject area (primarily in marketing) but also in Strategic Management for running a business.It will clear up all your doubts on commercialization of ideas and idea generation.
Anyway, a very good choice by IAF even if quite expensive.
Shiv can you somehow get pics of the cockpit?
Cheers
Cecx Fable & Gas.
A lot of people of previously commented that this baby has the electronics to practically stroll into Pak airspace with spec ops teams to do-the-do and casually stroll back. I feel the actual flight profile will be otherwise… I've been told that this transport can manouevre as good as a fighter and with a HUD fitted on this one I get the feeling that the pilots can even do knap-of-the-earth flying to get to their destination without even popping up into the radar screens! Now that we have this bird I think we should beg uncle to hand us the AC-130 as well.
Good Pics…