PRESS TRUST OF INDIA New Delhi, Dec 17|15: India will soon get its first female fighter pilots. According to a report, the Indian Air Force has selected three potential women trainees at the Air Force Academy near Hyderabad to become the first female combat pilots of the country. The women had joined the Dundigal-based premier academy in January. According to Hindustan Times, a board of officers assessed the flying capabilities of the 125 cadets training at the academy and shortlisted 45 of them for the fighter stream, including the three women. The cadets will graduate from the academy on December 19. Those who have been zeroed in for the fighter stream will depart for Hakimpet, which is near Hyderabad, in early January for stage-II training on Kiran Mk-II planes for six months. Those who will be selected then head to Bidar in Karnataka in June 2016 for stage-III training for 12 months on British Hawk advanced jet trainers. Earlier this month, the government had said the approval for induction of women into the fighter stream of the Indian Air Force is on an “experimental basis” for a period of five years.
