LiuYang.jpg (Photo : Reuters)
In China today, being a female fighter jet pilot is the first step toward being a female astronaut, according to an in-depth article from the Southern Metropolis Daily posted by the Global Times.
Potential astronauts for China's space programs are currently selected from among the People's Liberation Army's fighter plane pilots. As observed in the article, "the skills that pilots in the air force require prepares them for the possibility of flying beyond the skies of earth, which is why it is common for countries to choose astronauts from the air force."
Chinese women who aspire to become astronauts, however, will have to pass about a thousand tests before they can qualify as fighter pilots. They have to go through two and a half years of theoretical studies plus one and a half years of actual flying. They will be spending 28 months of basic training at the Aviation University of the Air Force, followed by six more months of preliminary flight training and another 10 months of more advanced flight training.
China's air force had been training female pilots for over six decades, but it was only fairly recently that it has begun guiding women to pilot fighter jets.
The air force started its recruitment program for female fighter pilots in 2005 from 12 selected provinces. When first initiated, there were no existent training modules or training equipment specifically fitted for the women so they had to adapt, improvize and re-tool existing training facilities such as the oxygen face masks to fit them. The trainers also had to learn how to get along with the women trainees.
China's first batch of female fighter pilots graduated in April 2009 following 44 months of intensive training.
Liu Yang, China's first female astronaut to fly into space in 2012 aboard the Shenzhou-9, was recruited from the air force. She is now 36 years old.
China now increasingly needs young female pilots not only for its ambitious air force modernization drive, but also for its current and future manned space programs. Thus, it has been seen intensifying its personnel recruitment and training processes for the air force.
Now, female pilot applicants will be recruited every three years, rather than every seven or eight years, and trainees will be chosen from 16 provinces, up from 12, according to the report.
Also, more and more of today's pilots are being helped to finish higher education courses. Soon, said the report, the first batch of female fighter pilots with engineering degrees will begin serving the air force.
