If you like your aircraft small and characterful, then head to India. For your pleasure, we plucked the ten most beautiful, handsome or aesthetically arresting Indian flying machines and presented them below.

10. HAL HJT-16 Kiran

Not many military aircraft inspire protective instincts in the casual observer, but one cannot help it with the Kiran. Though totally bereft in badassery it wins points for cuteness, scraping it in at number 10.

9. HAL Ajeet

An Indian derivative or the British Gnat, the Ajeet was an appealing design but loses points for looking too much like the Gnat/Midge.

8. NAL Saras

Despite being the least attractive aircraft in the light transport pusher class (lacking the sleekness of the Avanti or Vector) the Saras is still a pretty machine. It loses points for an overly broad chord to the vertical stabiliser and too small wings protruding from a flabby underbody, but gains some for the t-tail, friendly windows and pusher PT6s.

7. HAL HF-73

An early 1970s Indian Aircraft requirement for a Deep Penetration Strike Aircraft (DPSA) required collaboration with the West German Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm company. The resultant concept, with its wedge inlets and twin-tails looked like a tiny MiG-25 or perhaps a butch F-5E. Unsurprisingly considering MBB’s concurrent work on the MRCA, its forward fuselage and intakes were extremely Tornado-esque. Power would have come from the same engine type as the Torndao, though the smaller lighter Indo-German design would have enjoyed a far superior power-to-weight ratio. Studies featuring both single and double tails were produced but a lower risk option, the procurement of the Anglo-French Jaguar, replaced this extremely promising design. The HF-73, had it been actually built, may well have topped our list, but loses points for failing to happen. The extremely low canopy bow would have afforded an excellent downward view, a feature seen on the contemporary HAL HLFT-42 concept.

6. HAL Prachand

There is nothing wrong with a convex belly and thicker torso, with many people finding the ‘Dad bod‘ extremely attractive. Having said that, the Prachand looks best when concealing its stocky underside from the camera. Nose down and flying towards you, the Prachand (meaning ‘intense’ or ‘giant’ in Hindi) has a hungry predatorial look utterly appropriate for a light attack aircraft.

China’s Z-10 is sleeker and more futuristic, and the larger Apache and Ka-52 may cornered the market for the hideous-satanic-harvester-of-souls look, but the Prachand has a tall lumbering purposefulness all of its own as if British firm Avro still existed and decided to make a helo. The rather comical ‘grand piano’ style tail wheel adds a touch of humour so often sadly lacking in the world of military helicopters.

5. HAL HTT-40

Neither as freaky as an Orlik nor as exciting as a PC-21, the HTT40 is still undoubtably an attractive machine.

4. HAL HF-24 Marut

German Kurt Tank designed the exceptionally elegant Fw 200 airliner, the muscularly piscine Fw 190 fighter and the salaciously elongated Ta 152. Clearly Tank knew how to sculpt a beautiful aeroplane and his Marut was no exception. The first successful Asian jet aircraft did not, like the Spitfire for example, enjoy ‘all aspect’ beauty – and there are angles of looking at the design, where it seems incoherent or awkwardly proportioned. It would be rude to look at the Marut directly from above, where it becomes clear that the fuselage is far too thick and the wing too small. But the Marut, with its sleek sweeping fin and mass of exquisite natural metal design features is somewhat like a 1950s US Cadillac, it is kind of ridiculous – yet wonderful. These design features included a ravishingly space-age intake comprising a half-body and splitter plate, and the 1950s style split exhaust trough. Viewed directly from the front it looked uncannily like the later Mirage 2000 and 4000. Though not pretty from every angle, the Marut was the most charismatic of Indian aircraft.

Rival Willy Messerschmitt’s minute HA-300, a far more coherent-looking machine was more akin to a Fiat 850 Sport Spider.

3. HAL HT-2

Vishnu Madav Ghatage obtained his doctorate in Aeronautical Engineering at Gottingen in Germany under the famous Dr Ludwig Prandtl. A few years later he led the design of the the HT-2, a brilliantly pragmatic design with a rather lovely tailfin.

2. HAL HJT-36 Sitara

The curvaceously sexy canopy of the Sitara intermediate jet trainer is arguably the most appealing in production anywhere in the world, the simple tiny ‘ear’ intakes are rather cheeky and the petite dynamism of the Sitara is as refreshing an Italian ice cream next to Lake Como.

1. HAL Tejas ‘The Bangalore Matador’

“The moment had come,
I swallowed my gum,
We knew there’d be blood on the sand pretty soon.
The crowd held its breath,
Hoping that death
Would brighten an otherwise dull afternoon.”

– Tom Lehrer, In Old Mexico

Put aside the history, put aside a technical assessment and enjoy the Tejas from a purely aesthetic perspective. It’s not hard, as what could be more thrilling than a pocket-size Mirage 2000? Which is in many many ways what this tiny Indian fighter jet resembles. But as much as a Mirage 2000, the Tejas resembles the Spanish bullfighter, the matador. By ‘matador’ I do not mean the Spanish Harrier, but actual matadors, upholders of the Spanish tradition of the bullfight that rather too viscerally combines slaughter and spectacle. The epitome of the dainty deft killer, the Tejas is every inch the matador. Let’s start with the extremely pleasing taper of the fuselage from its widest point back to its neat little nozzle, reminiscent of the way the tight-fitting tights, or taleguilla, of a matador lead down to the zapatilla flat slippers. The extremely unusual LEVCONS are very much like the broad proud shoulders of the matador’s jacket (chaquetilla) and the stylish Viggen-like wing is like the matador’s cape, the capote de brega. Imagine an unfairly disadvantaged Su-30 (perhaps the pilot has been gored and denied missile usage) ‘fighting’ a Tejas in dissimilar air combat training gives you the closest aerial equivalent to the bullfight.

¡Ole!