(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-02-19 19:29

BEIJING - China's air force plans to recruit 30 female pilot cadets in 2008, who will become part of a reserve force of the Chinese women astronauts, according to an officer in charge of pilot recruitment.

Senior Colonel Sui Guosheng, head of the Pilots Recruitment Bureau of the Air Force of People's Liberation Army (PLA), said that the recruitment, which kicked off in 16 provincial areas across China Tuesday, was expected to end in July.

The candidates are high school graduates aged between 16 and 19, according to Sui.

"They will become a reserve force for the Chinese women taikonauts for future space missions," he said.

Unlike their predecessors who were mostly assigned to cargo aircraft piloting, navigation or telecommunication services, the new inductees will be trained for more demanding duties such as air refuelling, airborne early warning and electronic reconnaissance, according to the officer.

China, which successfully conducted its first manned space flight in October 2003, plans to send a female taikonaut into space in three to five years.

Sui revealed that they would be the first group of female pilot cadets to be awarded with double BA degrees upon their graduation.

Once selected, the students will first spend four years in the Aeronautics University of the Chinese Air Force and be awarded a bachelor's degree in engineering. After another year of advanced flight training, they will be granted a bachelor's degree in military science.

According to Sui, this was the ninth group of female pilots to be recruited by the Air Force of the Chinese People's Liberation Army since 1951. The previous group was recruited in 2005.

The Chinese air force, which has recruited and trained more than 300 female pilots since 1949, now boasts one of the largest contingent of female pilots in the world.