A two-day national seminar 'Aeronautics 2047', organised by the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA), commenced at Centre for Airborne Systems (CABS), Bengaluru on January 4, 2026. The seminar was inaugurated by the Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal A.P. Singh. In his address, the Chief of the Air Staff congratulated ADA for completing 25 years of Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas flight and emphasised on the need to adhere to the delivery timelines to keep the Indian Air Force (IAF) operationally ready in today's constantly evolving times.

Speaking on the occasion, Secretary, Department of Defence R&D and Chairman DRDO Dr Samir V. Kamat underscored the importance of developing indigenous cutting-edge technology to minimise the dependence on imports, thereby realising the vision of Viksit Bharat @2047.

The seminar has brought together domain experts, industrial partners, academia, aviation enthusiasts and speakers from across the aerospace community to share their insights on the evolution of aeronautics, design innovation, manufacturing, and future frontiers. The focus of Aeronautics-2047 is to explore various aspects of modern aerospace technologies, including manufacturing and assembly for next generation aircraft, digital manufacturing, aerodynamics for next generation combat aircraft, propulsion technologies, flight testing techniques, digital twin technology, certification challenges, flight control systems & avionics, maintainability challenges in fighter aircraft, AI in aircraft design, and precision manufacturing for actuators.

The seminar will cover the future of Indian space technologies and the journey of LCA Tejas from sketch to squadron. ADA has designed and developed LCA Tejas, with more than 5,600 successful flight trials. More than 100 design work centres including Government laboratories, academic institutes and industries were associated with this programme. Several niche technologies like carbon composites, light-weight materials, fly-by-wire flight control, digital utility management system, Glass Cockpit, etc. were developed to make LCA a fourth-generation fighter.

The LCA Mk1A is an advanced variant of the indigenously designed & manufactured fighter aircraft and will serve as a potent platform to meet the operational requirements of IAF. LCA MK II and LCA Navy are currently under development. During the seminar, a series of technical talks by distinguished and renowned speakers associated with Tejas programme will be delivered.

India benefited enormously with the development of LCA Tejas, as it has acquired now both capability and capacity to build fighter aircraft indigenously. The LCA programme is one of the most successful indigenous defence programmes through which IAF was provided with an exceptional air superiority fighter. Till date, 38 aircraft (32 Fighters and 6 Trainers) have been inducted into two squadrons of the IAF.

As part of the seminar, a large number of PSUs, DPSUs, Industries, MSMEs are displaying their products indigenously designed and developed for airborne applications.