Saturday, February 12, 2011

Aero India 2011, Indian Parliament member, Naveen Jindal, flies in the Rafale

One days after the journalist Shiv Aroor, indian parliament member and industrialist, Naveen Jindal also flew the Rafale during 40 min.
Jindal is the vice chairman of Jindal Steel and power an already flew in the F-16 anf F/A-18 fighter jets before. Therefore, he was quite at ease during his ride on the Rafale.

It seems that Dassault is pushing hard the Rafale at the show with all those VIP flights. Boeing and Lockeed are doing the same : the Chaiman of the Tata group and cosmonaut Wing Commander Rakesh Sharma were invided for a tour in the super Hornet, while Abhinav Bindra, Indian Olympic ace shooter champion was flying in the F-16I Super Viper (UAE F-16E bk60)

All this agitation could be a clue that the contest is actually going to end soon. May be we can expect an announcement at le Bourget Air show in  June ?

sources:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com - Naveen Jindal achieves new heights with French Rafale
http://www.indiavision.com - Naveen Jindal flies French Rafael at Bangalore's Aero India show

Meanwile, French Rafale pilots are commenting on the last June Garuda encounter between the Rafale and the Indian Su-30 MKI

[...] (Ed. Rafale pilot) Vinage said some of his best moments in flying were during the Indo-French exercises. "We went in with the Rafale and IAF came in with the Su-30. That's when we got a good look at the aircraft. The first thought that came to my mind was power -- Su-30 is about power and being powerful. But for the dogfight, I'd go for the Rafale."[...]

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