Chinese air force nurtured 328 female pilots over 60 years

Beijing (CNS) – The Air Force of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) has recruited and trained nine batches of female pilots and sent 328 of the women aloft in the last six decades.

In 2009, sixteen of them flew fighters for the first time, and China became one of the few countries in the world with female fighter pilots.

On March 8, the Air Force held a reception in Beijing to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the maiden flights of the nation's female pilots. Xu Qiliang, commander of the Air Force, met the 34 heroine pioneers of the first batch and other female pilots, who shared their recollections of the pains and gains of their career path.

On March 8, 1952, then commander-in-chief Zhu De hosted the celebration for the maiden flights themselves, attended by more than 7,000 women representatives and the wives of fifty envoys in China who all personally witnessed the ladies' valiant fly-over of Tiananmen Square.

During the past sixty years, batches of fearless, highly-skilled female pilots completed the required performance qualifications of charter flights, disaster relief, scientific research flights, aerial sowing, and performance of tricky maneuvres at the National Day parade. Half of all novice female pilots develop into premium or first-grade pilots, and many did or still do hold important positions in the PLA.