India gets first woman flight test engineer - Aashritha V Olety

New Delhi, May 26: In yet another first for women in the Indian Armed Forces, Squadron Leader Aashritha V Olety graduated as the first woman flight test engineer in India from the Air Force Test Pilot School. She is the only female officer to have undergone the training and passed to date.

 

 

In Olety's new role as a flight test engineer, she will assess aircraft and airborne systems before they are inducted into the armed forces. She was part of the 43rd Flight Test Course and Systems Testing Establishment (ASTE).

 

 

According to a report, there are only about 275 graduates ever clear this course ever since the course inception in 1973, and that Olety has become the first female officer in the history of IAF to ever clear this course after strenuous training.

 

 

Hailing from Kollegal in Karnataka, Olety has done her engineering from MVJ College of Engineering in Bengaluru. Apart from the medical wing in which women have been serving for decades, the army accounts for 6,807 women officers, the IAF 1,607 and the navy has 704 women officers. In percentage terms, women still form a small part of the military -- 0.56% of the army, 1.08% of the air force and 6.5% of the navy.

 

 

One of the milestones achieved by women in the Forces was when in 2015 the IAF decided to induct women jawans into the fighter stream.