Squadron Leader Aashritha V Olety recently became the country's first female flight test engineer after undergoing rigorous training. Olety, who is from Kollegal in Karnataka, received her engineering degree from Bengaluru's MVJ College of Engineering. She was a member of the Aircraft and Systems Testing Establishment's 43rd Flight Test Course (ASTE).
Aashritha has become the first female officer in the history of IAF to ever clear this course after strenuous training.
Olety recently graduated from the prestigious Air Force Test Pilots School (AFTPS), one of only seven in the world. She finished a one-year training programme at the pilot school, which is also a premier unit of the Indian Air Force (IAF).
According to an official, Squadron Leader Aashritha V Olety is the first and only woman in the IAF qualified for the role, and as a flight test engineer, she will evaluate aircraft and airborne systems before their induction into the Armed Forces. According to Oley's family, only 275 graduates have ever completed this course since its inception in 1973. Her sister Aashik Olety told Bangalore Mirror that her sister was commissioned in the IAF in 2014 and that it is a “great moment of pride” to set such a great history for the country.
The army has 6,807 female officers, the IAF has 1,607, and the navy has 704 female officers. Women continue to make up a small percentage of the Armed Forces — 0.56 percent of the army, 1.08 percent of the air force, and 6.5 percent of the navy — but the country is taking steps to break down gender barriers in the force. The number of women and men in the IAF is 1,607 and 1,46,727 respectively.
One of the watershed moments for women in the Forces came in 2015, when the IAF decided to induct women jawans into the fighter stream.
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