Wing commander Rajiv Kothiyal, who was the first man to fly the technology demonstrator (TD-1) of India's fighter plane - the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA), has been awarded the Ievn C.Kincheloe trophy for best Professional achievement for the year by the Society of Experimental Test Pilots (SETP), headquartered at Lancaster California,USA.
Though an official communique is expected any time , senior Air Force ( IAF ) officials conformed to this newspaper on Friday that the award,the highest to be given to any test pilot in the World,was conferred on Kothiyal at SETP's annual awards banquet held in the United States on Septemper 29.
The award is intituted in the memeory of Capton Iven C. kincheloe,who was a leading test pilot
with the United States Air Force He died while testing the F- 100 aircraft.
IAF officials said this is the first time in the histry of Indian aviation that an Indian test pilot has been given this prestigious award. Kothiyal now joins a select band of test pilot s which includes Neil Armstrong,the first man to break the sound barrier.
The SETP is an internationally recognised professional body of test pilots with members from
all aeronautional nations of the world.The award this given every year by the SETP after getting nominations from all current fights test programmes of the world .
When contacted, Air Marshal Philip Rajkumar ( Retd ),programme diractor, DIrector, National Flight Test Center ( NFTC ) said the recognition came as a pleasant surprise.
" When I forwarded Kothiyal's nomination,I never expected anything because India's LCA
programme is a small step considering other leading world fighter projects. With Kothiyal begging the award ,it is a recognition by the world flight test community of the achievements of the NFTC and Aeronautical Development Agency,IN general,and Kothiyal in particular, in carrying out the first flight an aircraftwith many new technologies packed into it ,like the LCA," Rajkumar said.
A LCA test pilot was picked up for this award at a time when leading air forces of the world are
propelling ahead with combat programmes such as the Joint Stirke Fighter ( JSF ),F-22 Raptor , F-28E Super Hornet of HTE US ,the Europe and the SU -37 Berkut programme of Russia.
IAF sources said Kothiyal along with Wing commender Bernerjee presented a paper on the first flight of LCA at the SETP annual symposium held at Los Angeles, USA,prior to the announcement oof the awards.
"The presentation was well received by the world community because the LCA wsa programme
after the Marut ( HF-24 ) flew in 1961," sources said.
Kothiyal himself was unavailable for comment as be he was away in Delhi,reportedly summoned by the Air Headquarters.
