A US military fighter jet today crashed into the sea off northern Japan and its solo pilot is waiting for rescue at sea after ejecting. A spokesman at the Japan Coast Guard said the F-16 jet crashed off Nemuro, about 1,000 kilometers north of Tokyo. He said the pilot ejected and is now waiting for rescue at sea. The spokesman said the crash happened around 11:30am local time, and coast guard ships and plane are now heading to the accident site. The US military was not immediately available for comment.

Air Marshal D C Kumaria will be the new Vice Chief of the Air Staff . Mr Kumaria, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Air Command, the most vital Operational Command of the IAF, would assume his new charge at Air Headquarters on Friday.

Having done his early schooling from Rashtriya Indian Military College(RIMC), Dehradun he went on to join the Khadakwasla, located National Defence Academy (NDA) and was commissioned into the Fighter Stream of the Indian Air Force in 1973.

AIR correspondent reports, early in his career he flew all variants of the MiG-21 aircraft. A graduate of Defence Services Staff College(DSSC), Wellington, he has held various important Field and Staff appointments.

He was awarded Vayu Sena Medal in 1983, Vishisht Seva Medal in 1996, Ati Vishisht Seva Medal in Jan 2007 and Param Vishisht Seva Medal in Jan 2012 .

he Public sector Hindustan Aeronautics Limited has signed tripartite general contract for designing and developing the multirole Transport Aircraft in India. A press release from HAL informs that the contract was signed with United Aircraft Corporation and Multirole Transport Aircraft Limited of Russia in Bangalore today.

Under the contract HAL will design and develop multirole transport aircraft as part of Joint Venture with the Russian partners. This follows an inter Governmental Agreement that was earlier signed between Indian and Russian Governments. Under the agreement it was agreed that both the countries will jointly design, develop and produce Multirole aircraft on 50:50 share basis.

The aircraft is useful for cargo and troop transportation and airdrop of supplies. Once the project is succcessful, it will provide self-reliance to the country, in the production of aircrafts of this size.

The government today clarified that the first B-787 Dreamliner will come to the country by end of this month as scheduled.

The clarification comes in the wake of some media reports saying that delivery of Dreamliner is further delayed. The B-787 Dreamliner is a fuel efficient and technically advanced aircraft.

An official release says the Civil Aviation Minister, Ajit Singh has cancelled his visit to Seattle and Charleston in USA to take the delivery of Dreamliner in view of the on-going problems of Air India including pilot’s strike and passenger’s inconvenien

The maiden flight of first prototype of naval version of indigenously developed Light Combat Aircraft took to the skies in Bangalore today. After the airforce version, the DRDO is developing the Naval version which can be used on aircraft carriers or warships.

Speaking after the flight test, the Scientific Advisor to Raksha Mantri Dr. V K Saraswat informed that LCA-Navy being developed within the country is the only Carrier borne light Fighter aircraft in the world. He said the prototype had outstanding flight for 21 minutes in which the aero-dynamics and landing gears were found satisfactory. He informed that the aircraft will probably be ready by 2014 for Initial Operational Clearance.