LCA goes supersonic

"Tuollaf43" wrote in message
om...
India's home built fighter aircraft went supersonic today for the first
time.

http://www.hinduonnet.com/stories/2003080205100100.htm

Thats a good achievement for them.

But, their wing commander should probably brush up on his aviation history:

"Later, Wg. Cdr. Vikram Singh stated that the maximum speed achieved by any
aircraft piloted by a human being was Mach 3, that is, three times the speed
of sound. An aircraft moving at Mach 1, which is the speed of sound, will
cover about 334 metres a second."

Which, to clarify, is not actually true. The SR-71 was capable of just over
Mach 3, and the X-15 got close to Mach 7. Technically, the space shuttle is
also an aircraft when it re-enters the atmosphere, and it does that at Mach
25 (though calling the space shuttle an aircraft is splitting hairs).