Flight Lt Mohana Singh first woman to fly Hawk jet
Three years after making history by being among the first women to be commissioned into the Indian Air Force fighter squadron, Flight Lieutenant Mohana Singh adds another achievement to her list of 'firsts.' In a proud moment, Lieutenant Singh on Friday became the first woman fighter pilot to be qualified to undertake missions by day on Hawk advanced jet aircraft.
Singh has experience of 500 hours of incident free-flying
As per an official statement released on Friday, Lieutenant Singh completed her syllabus sortie to become fully operational on Hawk jets as she landed after a grueling four-aircraft combat sortie at the Kalaikunda Air Force station in West Bengal. According to IANS, she has an experience of 500 hours of incident free-flying, including 380 hours on the Hawk Mk 132 jet.
Here's what her training sessions entailed
The woman officer is trained in both air-to-air combat and air-to-ground missions and undertook several practice missions involving firing rockets, guns and dropping high caliber bombs, official reports state. Lieutenant Singh has also participated in various Air Force level flying exercises.
Earlier, IAF had women pilots only in transport, helicopter streams
In 2016, Lieutenant Singh, along with Flight Lieutenants Avani Chaturvedi and Bhawana Kanth, became the first three women to be commissioned into IAF's fighter stream. Earlier, the IAF had women pilots only in the transport and helicopter streams until the then-Minister of Defense, late Manohar Parrikar, and Air Chief Marshal Arup Raha opened the fighter stream for women pilots in October 2015.
Lieutenant Singh hails from Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan
Lieutenant Singh is the daughter of an Indian Air Force personnel and hails from Jhunjhunu in Rajasthan. She completed schooling from the Air Force School, New Delhi, followed by a B.Tech in Electronics and Communication from the Global Institute of Management and Emerging Technologies, Amritsar.
Lieutenant Kanth became first fighter pilot to fly MiG-21 Bison
On a related note, last week Lieutenant Bhawana Kanth became the first daytime woman fighter pilot to fly a MiG-21 Bison. Congratulating her, the IAF tweeted, "With her dedication, hard work and perseverance she has become the 1st women Officer to achieve this feat. She is from the first batch of women fighter pilots of the IAF." She's currently posted at Bikaner.
