All You Need To Know About Aashritha V Olety: First Woman Flight Test Engineer Of India

Who is Aashritha V Olety? In a first, a woman officer of the Indian Air Force (IAF) has graduated from the Air Force Test Pilot School and has become the country's first woman flight test engineer. Squadron Leader Aashritha V Olety has become the one and the only woman to be IAF certified for the position.

The IAF accounts for a total of 1,607 women officers, while the military and navy have 6,807 and 704 female officers respectively if we leave out the medical wing of the forces. Keeping these figures in mind, Olety's achievement breaks yet another glass ceiling for women in uniform in the Armed Forces.

Here are 10 things to know about Aashritha V Olety, the first woman flight test engineer of the country:

1. Olety, who comes from Kollegal, Chamarajanagara, graduated from the MVJ College of Engineering in Bengaluru.

2. She finished a one-year course from the Air Force Test Pilot School and graduated as a part of the forty-third Flight Test Course.

3. Air Force Test Pilots School (AFTPS) is a part of the Aircraft and Systems Testing Establishment, a premier unit of the Indian Air Force (IAF).

4. AFTPS is one of the select few Test Pilot Schools across the world that produce test pilots and flight test engineers.

5. She is the one and the only woman in the IAF qualified for the role of flight test engineer.

6. As a flight test engineer, Aashritha V Olety will evaluate aircraft and airborne systems before they are inducted into the Armed Forces.

7. Olety was commissioned as a Flying Officer in the IAF in 2014 through the SSC examinations.

8. There are only 275 graduates to have ever cleared the course since its inception in 1973.

9. She became the first and the only woman in the history of IAF to ever qualify as a flight test engineer.

10. "It is a great moment of pride to set such a great history," said Aashik Olety on his sister's acheivements.