An Indian Tejas fighter jet crashed during an aerial display at the Dubai Air Show

[Ak01]

In the above images the welding and coating seems to be actively chipped at multiple points, several plates are not sitting flush with the frame.

yea but if you get up close to literally any plane, you'll see they never look as good up close as they do afar. This looks pretty run of the mill for aircraft.

 

[Ak01]

Friends, as a non aviation person please can someone educate me ( and no ridiculing Tejas by calling it a samosa is not helpful)

What I mean to ask is the folllowing:

View attachment 161651
View attachment 161652

In the above images the welding and coating seems to be actively chipped at multiple points, several plates are not sitting flush with the frame.

the cracking you are seeing is the paint on top of seals cracking.

obviously, with aircraft, different materials expand and contract at different temperatures and rates. Its not ideal for paint because lets say the seal contracts, with the surface around it expanding, the paint is going to crack.

Airbus actually had this issue on the A350, so what they did is place a layer of mesh on top of the composite for the paint to bond to, this way, the surface which the paint adheres to expands and contracts in a uniform manner, preventing the cracking. Obviously, this worked alot better in theory than paper, hence the qatar airways scandal.




You can see it very well here, the mesh below and also the paint above.

PAF aircraft tend to look quite good as we repaint our aircraft very, very frequently. Other forces do not. If you compare some UAE or HAF F-16's, wow, they look rough, whereas PAF ones always look mint.

All in all, the finish on that Tejas is nothing surprising, its clear the IAF does not repaint their aircraft as much, and they probably should have picked a more polished example to display, but it doesn't say a ton about processes and quality. The other day, i was speaking to some pilots of a Falcon 8X who were showing me around their aircraft, it was a stunning plane, but when i got up close i thought damn the paint is terrible, cracking on seals etc, thin spots and all, but really, this is standard for aviation, paint is expensive and requires downtime, as long as its mostly there, its not an issue, really, the main thing with the paint is it prevents corrosion.

 

[RescueRanger]

the cracking you are seeing is the paint on top of seals cracking.

obviously, with aircraft, different materials expand and contract at different temperatures and rates. Its not ideal for paint because lets say the seal contracts, with the surface around it expanding, the paint is going to crack.

Airbus actually had this issue on the A350, so what they did is place a layer of mesh on top of the composite for the paint to bond to, this way, the surface which the paint adheres to expands and contracts in a uniform manner, preventing the cracking. Obviously, this worked alot better in theory than paper, hence the qatar airways scandal.


View attachment 161657

You can see it very well here, the mesh below and also the paint above.

PAF aircraft tend to look quite good as we repaint our aircraft very, very frequently. Other forces do not. If you compare some UAE or HAF F-16's, wow, they look rough, whereas PAF ones always look mint.

All in all, the finish on that Tejas is nothing surprising, its clear the IAF does not repaint their aircraft as much, and they probably should have picked a more polished example to display, but it doesn't say a ton about processes and quality. The other day, i was speaking to some pilots of a Falcon 8X who were showing me around their aircraft, it was a stunning plane, but when i got up close i thought damn the paint is terrible, cracking on seals etc, thin spots and all, but really, this is standard for aviation, paint is expensive and requires downtime, as long as its mostly there, its not an issue, really, the main thing with the paint is it prevents corrosion.

Thank you very much for the detailed post and the time taken to write it .

Much appreciated

 

[dbc]

In the above images the welding and coating seems to be actively chipped at multiple points, several plates are not sitting flush with the frame.

The Tejas is 40% composite it's takes specialized precision equipment, materials and engineering knowhow to join composites with metal. Since the knowhow HAL has is of Soviet origin even the rivet joins you see on the aircraft is a testament to the Soviet/ Russian influence within HAL. For instance, the floor of the Eurofighter plant has to be laser measured and leveled to sub millimeter precision before it can begin making the jet.

 

[TAC]

Friends, as a non aviation person please can someone educate me ( and no ridiculing Tejas by calling it a samosa is not helpful)

What I mean to ask is the folllowing:

View attachment 161651
View attachment 161652

In the above images the welding and coating seems to be actively chipped at multiple points, several plates are not sitting flush with the frame.

Yet Harpy was proclaiming the finish was much higher quality and smoother than the JF-17 based on a mediocre pixel quality video he posted. Guess u need Indian eyes to see that in these pics.

 

[Master Chief]

Yet Harpy was proclaiming the finish was much higher quality and smoother than the JF-17 based on a mediocre pixel quality video he posted. Guess u need Indian eyes to see that in these pics.

Shouldn't really trust someone called "Harpy" .

 

[dbc]

You can see it very well here, the mesh below and also the paint above.

Airbus actually had this issue on the A350, so what they did is place a layer of mesh on top of the composite for the paint to bond to, this way

That's the ECF it's an expanded copper foil its primary purpose is to dissipate the energy from lighting strikes. The reason is carbon fiber reinforced plastic (CFRP) composites are less electrically conductive than traditional aircraft grade aluminum so Airbus needed a solution for a CFRP fuselage to handle the energy of a lightning strike. You are right the paint issue was caused by the ECF and the CFRP expanding or contracting at different rates at varying temperatures.

Airbus had to abandon the ECF and create a new material called the perforated copper foil (PCF) which expands and contracts at the same rate as the CFRP.

 

[UndercoverJIX]

the cracking you are seeing is the paint on top of seals cracking.

obviously, with aircraft, different materials expand and contract at different temperatures and rates. Its not ideal for paint because lets say the seal contracts, with the surface around it expanding, the paint is going to crack.

Airbus actually had this issue on the A350, so what they did is place a layer of mesh on top of the composite for the paint to bond to, this way, the surface which the paint adheres to expands and contracts in a uniform manner, preventing the cracking. Obviously, this worked alot better in theory than paper, hence the qatar airways scandal.


View attachment 161657

You can see it very well here, the mesh below and also the paint above.

PAF aircraft tend to look quite good as we repaint our aircraft very, very frequently. Other forces do not. If you compare some UAE or HAF F-16's, wow, they look rough, whereas PAF ones always look mint.

All in all, the finish on that Tejas is nothing surprising, its clear the IAF does not repaint their aircraft as much, and they probably should have picked a more polished example to display, but it doesn't say a ton about processes and quality. The other day, i was speaking to some pilots of a Falcon 8X who were showing me around their aircraft, it was a stunning plane, but when i got up close i thought damn the paint is terrible, cracking on seals etc, thin spots and all, but really, this is standard for aviation, paint is expensive and requires downtime, as long as its mostly there, its not an issue, really, the main thing with the paint is it prevents corrosion.

What about the weld quality?? non certified common welding folks can do better than that.

 

[PakSword]

JF-17 and Tejas in a single photograph.

Well, these are the machines and roles might be reversed... I wish no pilot loses his life in an airshow and no PAF pilot loses his life in a battle.

 

[Guynextdoor]

it's 12,000 flight hours for the entire program. Just for contrast the F-35 reached a million flight hours in March 2025. So when people talk about the reliability of the F-35 and compare it to the Tejas they're seriously delulu...

How is your statement relevant to what was discussed?

 

[dbc]

How is your statement relevant to what was discussed?

because one of your compatriots said the F-35 has had more crashes than the Tejas.

 

[Guynextdoor]

because one of your compatriots said the F-35 has had more crashes than the Tejas.

Someone may have . I didn't. Objectively saying that two crashes in 15000 hours is a low rate is a fact. And here, it seems like the pilot. may have had a momentary blackout in a maneuvre many air forces don't allow for disply flying because of this risk. So the people who allowed the maneuvre should have been brught to task, not the plane makers fault.

 

[Vkdindian1]

because one of your compatriots said the F-35 has had more crashes than the Tejas.

In a country of 1.4 billion, there are bound to be many idiotic claims. Claims with no basis and many with malicious intent and can’t become the basis of considering them either an official position nor a majority view.

Sadly many of such posts are picked up by equally motivated individuals to create an impression that suits their own narrative.

Such social media content should be ignored. But it finds traction when given importance.

 

[flyingorca]

Man, can't you see it's coming off the dispenser?

If that's a "fuel pressure relief valve" the bloody fuel would catch fire!

View attachment 161580

This reminds me of ramming train meme. They tried to ram things that LCA was not meant to take.

 

[CallSignMaverick]

Indians pull the same trick with their perpetual "total GDP victory" by avoiding discussions on GDP per capita.

They don't understand what a denominator is, despite Arabs having tried really hard to teach them basic mathematics.

You're genuinely comparing machines to humans?

http://reuters.com/world/india/indias-economy-likely-grew-73-julyseptember-quarter-2025-11-25/

Don't tell me they can grow flying hours YoY sustained for years.