China testing hypersonic missile technology: there is one report and one rebuttal. Recently, the London-based Financial Times (FT) report has claimed that during August 2021, China has successfully tested a nuclear-capable hypersonic missile.

Indian aerospace industrial capabilities have thus far been dominated by a giant conglomerate – Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) – that have evolved through decades.  HAL’s predecessor Walchand Hirachand Industries Limited was a privately owned aircraft manufacturing entity engaged primarily in repair and overhauling of British and Allied air assets, before being taken over by the government in the 1940s.

The latest Sukhoi T-50 prototype – PAK-FA – a twin-engine fifth-generation stealth jet fighter aborted a takeoff at the recently held MAKS Air Show outside Moscow on 21 August 2011 after four days of successful demo flights. While two prototypes of PAK-FA have cumulatively made 48 flights since 29 January 2010, it will be important to know the reasons of this mishap.

On 27 May 2009 Indian Air Force inducted one of the biggest state-of-art platforms in its fleet capable of giving advance warning of an aerial threat. The platform is also capable of gathering electronics and signals intelligence. This is India’s first Airborne Warning and Control Systems commonly known as AWACS. Two more such aerial platforms are on queue to be inducted by 2012.

With a slice of more than 15 percent of the global aerospace market – both civil and military, currently estimated to be over $ 300 billion per annum with a near double digit projected growth over the next ten years, it is no surprise that the Bangalore Aero-India show has not only attracted gorillas like the Boeing, Lockheed, BAe (British Aerospace) or the European major EADS but also offered opportunities for aerospace chimpanzees (mid-sized companies like Embraer, Israeli Aircraft Industry) as well as marmosets (like HAL).