News

Female pilots flying training jets conclude air display

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-10-01 12:31

The Chinese People's Liberation Army's 15 female pilots ridding 15 training jets K-8 appeared as the final formation of an air display at the end of a grand military parade in Beijing Thursday morning.

With music of a popular military song to express pilots' enthusiasm for the nation's blue sky echoing around Tian'anmen Square, five training jets flew over hundreds of thousands of spectators, leaving red, yellow and blue smoke trails behind to conclude the air show that lasts for nearly ten minutes.

The aviators are China's first generation of female fighter pilots who just graduated from the Air Force's third aviation college with full A scores of their training courses.

"Females pilots face more physical challenges and obstacles in operating a fighter jet for maneuvers such as twisting and flipping," said Wang Baoqun, political commissar of the aviation college.

"But considering precision and carefulness of operating the jet's various apparatus, the female has shown more advantages than male pilots," Wang said.

The college's dean Wu Huiming told Xinhua that the female fighter pilots have shown better endurance than males.

The PLA's Air Force started to recruit female pilots in 1951 and has cultivated more than 300 female transporter pilots.

The 15 female fighter pilots were recruited five years ago with another 19 competitive trainees, and only 16 of them successfully graduated from the aviation college this year.

Sources with the Air Force told Xinhua that the female pilots will take an equal responsibility in their future air squadrons to fly the third-generation fighters including J-10 since the aircraft is not categorized by genders.