Shattering the glass ceiling once again, Squadron Leader Mohana Singh made history by becoming the first-ever woman fighter pilot to join the Indian Air Force's (IAF) elite 18 'Flying Bullets' squadron who operate India's indigenously made LCA Tejas fighter jets. Earlier as well Singh made her place amongst the first women pilots to be inducted into the fighter squadron.
Recently, Mohana took part in the 'Tarang Shakti' exercise in Jodhpur, where she was part of the historic flight by three vice chiefs of the three forces including Air Force Vice Chief Air Marshal Amar Preet Singh, Lt Gen NS Raja Subramani and Vice Admiral Krishna Swaminathan.
Who is Mohana Singh?
January 1992 born Mohana Singh hails from Jhunjhunu district of Rajasthan. Her father, Pratap Singh Jitarwal, is a retired IAF Master Warrant Officer while her mother worked as a teacher. Her grandfather was a flight gunner in Aviation Research Centre.
Singh completed her schooling at The Air Force School in New Delhi, before pursuing a B. Tech in Electronics and Communication from the Global Institute of Management and Emerging Technologies in Amritsar in 2016.
In 2016, Mohana made history in 2016 after she, along with Bhawna Kanth and Avni Chaturvedi, as all three of were inducted into the Indian Air Force (IAF) as the first women fighter pilots of the nation. 2016 was the year when the government opened the fighter jet cockpits for women.
In 2019, Mohana became the first female IAF fighter pilot to achieve full operational status on the Hawk Mk.132 advanced jet trainer at Bidar Air Force Station with over 380 hours of incident-free flying. She mastered both Air-to-Air and Air-to-Ground combat modes by that time.
So far, Mohana was flying IAF's MiG-21s and was recently posted to the LCA squadron deployed in Naliya air base in the Gujarat sector along the border with Pakistan.
