BENGALURU: The third series production Light Combat Aircraft, Tejas-SP3, on Wednesday took to the skies for the first time in a successful 15-minute sortie.Sources in HAL told TOI that the first profiling of the aircraft was satisfactory and that most parameters that were to be checked were fulfilled. “The flight was restricted to only 15 minutes because of the low-hanging clouds, the initial plan was to fly for longer,” a source in the LCA complex said.Tejas-SP3 had undergone the low-speed taxi trials (LSTT) on Friday (September 23) as reported by TOI earlier, which was followed by the high-speed taxi trials (HSTT).Sources said that two more important sorties are scheduled in the coming days, a successful completion of which are crucial before the handing over of the aircraft to the Indian Air Force (IAF).The IAF, on July 1 this year raised the first squadron of Tejas , which became the first squadron of an indigenously developed fighter aircraft. “Although the heart (engine) of the aircraft is foreign and several other component are imported, the aircraft was completely designed and developed here, unlike any other fighter aircraft,” an IAF source pointed out.The squadron, presently in Bengaluru, has only two aircraft (Tejas-SP1 and SP2) and it will be a year before it moves to its designated squadron headquarters in Sulur, Tamil Nadu. The acceptation of Tejas-SP3 by IAF is unlikely to happen before the Air Force Day (October 8).The maiden flights of SP1 and SP2 happened on September 1, 2014 and March 23, 206, respectively and Team LCA has been working overtime, including on Sundays and festival days to deliver the SP3 at the earliest. From the first flight of SP2 in March this year, the team has completed production and the first flight of SP3 in just about six months.