The forgotten Indian fighter that could have changed defence history

In 1961, India made global aerospace history. On a Bangalore airstrip, a silver-grey fighter jet lifted off the tarmac and soared into the sky. The aircraft was the HF-24. The man in the cockpit was Wing Commander Suranjan Das. And the moment marked India’s entry into a one-of-a-kind club.

The Hindustan Fighter-24 (HF-24), designed in India and capable of supersonic speeds, was the first such aircraft to be built outside the Western world. For a country just 14 years into independence, whose industrial base was still emerging from colonial rule and exploits, it was a feat of staggering ambition.