Squadron leader Mohana Singh made history after becoming the first woman fighter pilot to join the Indian Air Force’s elite 18 ‘Flying Bullets’ squadron, operating India’s indigenously ‘Made in India’ LCA Tejas fighter jet’s squadron.
Squadron Leader Mohana Singh Becomes First Woman Tejas Fighter Pilot
Squadron leader Mohana Singh made history after becoming the first woman fighter pilot to join the Indian Air Force’s elite 18 ‘Flying Bullets’ squadron, operating India’s indigenously ‘Made in India’ LCA Tejas fighter jet’s squadron. Mohana Singh made history in 2016 after she, along with Bhawna Kanth and Avni Chaturvedi, were inducted into the Indian Air Force as the first women fighter pilots.
While women pilots have been flying helicopters and transport aircraft since 1991 in the IAF, it was only in 2016 when the government decided to allow women into fighter jet cockpits. Squadron leader Bhawna Kanth and Squadron leader Avni Chaturvedi are now flying the Su-30 MKI fighter jets in the western desert.
Up until recently, Mohana Singh was flying the MiG-21s and was recently posted to the LCA squadron deployed in Naliya air base in the Gujarat sector along the border with Pakistan.
Mohana Singh comes from Jhunjhunu district of Rajasthan. Her grandfather was a flight gunner in Aviation Research Centre and father is a warrant officer in the IAF.
