Women pilots' induction not ruled out: ASTE official

Bangalore, Feb 7 (UNI) The possibility of inducting women pilots for flight testing cannot be ruled out if they are recruited for long-term commission service, Air Commodore M Matheswaran, Commandant Aircraft and Systems Testing Establishment (ASTE) said today.

Talking to newspersons here after announcing the completion of 60 years of ASTE's service, he said ASTE had established country's first Experimental Flight Test Pilot School in 1972 and trained 30 batches of 16 students each till date.

He said the school, fourth in the world, had so far not inducted women pilots as the rules did not permit their induction for short-term commission service in Indian Air Force.

Replying to questions, Mr Matheswaran said there were instances of women engineers getting experimental flight test training in the US and Brazil, but not any woman pilots, he added.

UNI MV MSP RL DB1834