Republic Day 2022: India's first woman Rafale jet pilot Shivangi Singh part of Air Force tableau
The topic of the IAF tableau was 'Indian Air Force Transforming for the Future.' The float included scaled-down versions of the Rafale fighter aircraft, an indigenously produced light combat helicopter (LCH), and the 3D surveillance radar Aslesha MK-1.
FollowShivangi Singh, the country's first female Rafale fighter aircraft pilot, was part of the Indian Air Force tableau at the Republic Day parade on Wednesday. She is just the second woman fighter jet pilot in the Indian Air Force (IAF). Last year, Flight Lieutenant Bhawna Kanth became the Indian Air Force's first female fighter jet pilot. Singh, a Varanasi native, joined the IAF in 2017 and was commissioned as part of the IAF's second class of female fighter pilots. Before piloting the Rafale, she had flown the MiG-21 Bison. She is a member of the IAF's Golden Arrows squadron stationed in Ambala, Punjab.
The topic of the IAF tableau was 'Indian Air Force Transforming for the Future.' The float included scaled-down versions of the Rafale fighter aircraft, an indigenously produced light combat helicopter (LCH), and the 3D surveillance radar Aslesha MK-1. It also had a scaled-down model of the MiG-21 aircraft, which played a crucial part in India's victory over Pakistan in 1971, resulting in the formation of Bangladesh and a model of India's first indigenously manufactured aircraft, the Gnat.
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The first batch of Rafale fighter planes landed in India on July 29, 2020, roughly four years after India inked an inter-governmental deal with France to purchase 36 aircraft for 59,000 crores. So far, 32 Rafale planes have been delivered to the IAF, with four more scheduled to arrive in April of this year.
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