The aircraft carrier is a gigantic, floating city of man, metal, combustibles, explosives and attitude. Here, there is no room for complacency or showmanship.

Team LCA (Navy)’s achievement, something that may soon culminate into a carrier landing, was 14 long years in the making, says ‘Mao’ with a clenched fist. He measures his words with the fortitude of a man who lost flag rank only to create history. It’s serendipitous that he reads a lot of fighter pilot John Boyd.

From a historical perspective, it is truly a landmark achievement for India and our naval aviation. We have been operating carriers for over half a century. But never has an indigenous fighter ever trapped an arrester wire on a carrier’s deck.

The carriers themselves have been imported and refurbished at great cost to exchequer.

The old era of short take-off but arrested recovery (STOBAR) aircraft made way for vertical and short take-off landing (VSTOL) sea harriers acquired with INS Viraat (now decommissioned). A crucial skill called ‘tail-hook landing’ was lost to the navy for over three decades till we procured INS Vikramaditya (former Russian carrier Gorshkov) and the MiG-29K.

Slowly, that skill was revived and caressed back to life. Today, naval MiG-29Ks routinely storm off VKD’s ski-jump with precision and elan. It hasn’t been easy or cheap. People have slogged through the graveyard shift. It’s time to acknowledge their contribution.

Only a rare breed of test crew has straddled the two worlds of STOBAR and VSTOL in India. Mao, Shiv and my colleague Theo (PDAWFS today) are among those few. So are people who have countered the case with stoic arguments. The counterweights are firmly in place. This augurs well for a service lost in translation between Russian carriers, American fighters and Indian attitude.

Interestingly, Rear Admiral Surendra Ahuja (retd), who now heads Boeing Defence’s India business, rekindled navy’s interest in tail-hook landings on the USN T-45C Goshawks while in service. His course-mate Mao has achieved the same on a fly-by-wire, unstable, indigenous, delta-wing planform.

I think it’s a great moment for naval aviation, worthy of all-round celebration.