India's Tata flies F-16 in Bangalore act of daring

0 Comments | AFP, February, 2007

BANGALORE, India (AFP) — Indian tycoon Ratan Tata, who staked seven billion pounds to buy Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus last month, has shown his risk-taking instincts extend beyond the boardroom when he flew an F-16 fighter plane.

The silver-haired chairman of the Tata group appeared shaken less by his 40-minute flight and more by the scores of reporters, photographers and TV crews who mobbed him at the Yelahanka Air Base when he emerged from the plane Thursday.

Tata, 69, dressed in black overalls and his hair tousled by the helmet he wore, smiled for the cameras before he was whisked away in a buggy by officials from Lockheed Martin, the US maker of the plane that can reach a speed two times that of sound.

Tata, who sat in the rear seat, was in control of...