On Saturday, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar commissioned flying cadets - Avani Chaturvedi, Bhawana Kanth and Mohana Singh - into the Indian Air Force at a combined graduation parade at the Air Force Academy, Dundigal.
Following completion of stage-III training at Bidar in Karnataka, the first women fighter pilots will get to fly supersonic jets like Sukhoi and Tejas next year.
Avani Chaturvedi belongs to Satna, Madhya Pradesh. Daughter of an executive engineer of the state government, Avani did her schooling from Adarsh School in Rewa and BTech in Computer Science from Banasthali University, Jaipur.
Bhawana Kanth, a native of Darbhanga(Bihar), was born and brought up in the Indian Oil Corporation Limited Barauni Refinery Township, Begusarai, where her father works as an engineer. Bhawana dreamt of flying planes ever since she was a child. After schooling from Barauni Refinery DAV Public School, she pursued BE(Medical Electronics) from BMS College of Engineering in Bangalore.
Mohana Singh hails from Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan. Her grandfather was a flight gunner in Aviation Research Centre and father is a warrant officer in the IAF. Mohana did her schooling from Air Force School, New Delhi and is a BTech in Electronics & Communication from Global Institute of Management and Emerging Technologies, Amritsar.
