Inducting Women pilots in flight testing not ruled out:Matheswaran

Bangalore, Feb 7 (UNI) Possibility of inducting Women pilots for Flight Testing can not be ruled out if they were recruited for long-term Commission service, Air Commodore M Matheswaran,Commandant Aircraft and Systems Testing Establishment (ASTE), one of the four such centers in the world, said today.

Speaking to newspersons here after announcing completion of 60 years of ASTE's service, he said that ASTE has established country's first Experimental Flight Test Pilot school in 1972 and has trained as many as 30 batches of 16 students each till date.

He said that the Test Pilot School, only fourth in the world after United States, United Kingdom and Russia, has so far not inducted Women pilots as rules dose not permit induction of women in service for short-term commission in IAF.

Replying to questions, Mr Matheswaran said that there are instances where Women engineers have received Experimental test flight training in United States and Brazil and not any woman pilot, he added.

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