Published: 22nd February 2018
Avani Chaturvedi becomes first Indian woman to fly a fighter aircraft
Avani Chaturvedi is among three Indian women pilots who had undergone rigorous training to fly fighter jets and were commissioned as flying officers in 2016
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The officer from Madhya Pradesh looks up to the late Kalpana Chawla as an inspiration | Yahoo
Scripting history, flying officer Avani Chaturvedi has become the first Indian woman to fly a fighter aircraft, an IAF official said."Chaturvedi became the first Indian woman to fly a fighter aircraft solo when she flew a MiG-21 bison in her first solo flight," the official. She undertook the solo sortie from IAF's Jamnagar base on Monday, he said.
A sortie is the first big step for a fighter pilot and she completed it in the Russian jet in less than an hour, say reports. Three women pilots, Chaturvedi, Bhawana Kanth and Mohana Singh, had undergone strenuous training programme to fly fighter jets. They were commissioned as flying officers in July 2016, less than a year after the government decided to open the fighter stream for women on an experimental basis. The IAF has already selected the next batch of three women trainee pilots for the fighter stream.
