Indian Prez creates history by flying in Sukhoi fighter jet
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
New Delhi, Nov 25, IRNA -- 74 year old India’s President Pratibha Devisingh Patil Wednesday became world's first woman president ever to take to the skies in a fighter aircraft.
She undertook a 30 min sortie in a Sukhoi 30 MKI fighter aircraft today morning from the Lohegaon air base in Pune in Maharashtra state.
Wing Commander S Sajan flew the supreme Commander of Indian Armed Forces into the sky for this historic event.
Along with the President's aircraft, two other SU-30 fighters made the formation.
This is the second time in the last four years that the Lohegaon base saw the commander-in-chief of the Indian armed forces flying in a Su-30 MKI aircraft.
On June 8, 2006, then President A P J Abdul Kalam had taken a 30-minute sortie in the Su-30 MKI, an exercise that was positioned as a familiarisation flight as well as an act of motivating youngsters to join the armed forces.
A Sukhoi, India's most advanced fighter plane, can carry eight tonnes of armaments and fly over 3000 kms with onboard fuel and can undertake an extended journey of upto 5000 kms with a single air-to-air refuelling.
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End News / IRNA / News Code 809986
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