President A P J Adbul Kalam on Friday asked scientists to design and develop a Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) which could compete with world giants.
    
"We have to develop aircraft which can compete with European, American and Russian aircraft," he said while addressing scientists at the Research Centre Imarat (RCI) after inaugurating Hardware-in-loop Simulation (HILS), an essential facility required for missile development in Hyderabad.

"Though we were denied the technology, our scientists took it as a challenge and developed LCA and on February 10, this year, 3 LCA `Tejas' flew as part of Aero India 2005 after logging 187 flight hours," he said.

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"We still have to work towards flying our aircraft with European, American and Russian fighters in Paris and other air shows in different parts of the world," the President added.

LCA should be inducted into the service squadron for operational purpose, Kalam told the scientists and narrated the hurdles the scientists faced to bring out the LCA.