Father and daughter duo create history by flying advanced fighter jet trainers

NEW DELHI: Father-son fighter pilots in the IAF have generated sonic booms before. But this time, a father-daughter duo have torn into the skies in advanced fighter jet trainers to carve a place for themselves in the country’s military aviation history.
Air Commodore Sanjay Sharma, a veteran fighter pilot currently posted at the IAF headquarters, and his daughter Flying Officer Ananya Sharma (24), who is undergoing `transitional’ fighter training after being commissioned last December, recently flew in the same formation of Hawk-132 planes at the Bidar airbase.
"There has not been any previous instance in the IAF where a father and his daughter were part of the same fighter formation for a mission. They were more than just father and daughter. They were comrades, who had full faith in each other as fellow wingmen," an officer said on Tuesday.
Air Commodore Sharma is obviously bursting with pride. "Ananya always used to say `Papa, I want to be a fighter pilot like you’. The biggest, proudest day in my life was when we flew in the Hawk aircraft in the same formation at Bidar on May 30," he says.
Flying Officer Ananya, in turn, adds, "As a child, I would often ask my father why there were no women fighter pilots. He would tell me in his characteristic style `Don’t worry, you will be one’."
As luck would have it, the combat exclusion policy for women in the Indian armed forces was shattered when the IAF inducted three of them as fighter pilots in 2016. Since then, 15 women have been commissioned into the fighter stream of the IAF, with some now already flying supersonic jets like MiG-21s, Sukhoi-30MKIs and even the spanking new Rafales.
Grabbing the chance to fulfil her lifelong dream, Ananya was selected, underwent basic training on turbo-prop aircraft at the IAF academy and then was commissioned in December 2021.
She is now undergoing transitional fighter training at Bidar on the Hawks, which includes learning intensive combat manoeuvres and armament firing spread over a year to ensure rookie pilots can handle highly-unforgiving old fighters like MiG-21s.
She will be posted to a full-fledged fighter squadron in January. Her father, who was commissioned in 1989, had earlier commanded the famous 101 `Falcons of Chhamb and Akhnoor’ squadron of MiG-21s. The squadron, which was subsequently `number-plated’, was resurrected last year at Hasimara with the new Rafale fighters.
"Growing up at fighter bases, we would often hear the sounds of jets flying over us. Knowing that my father was flying one of them used to be really inspiring," flying Officer Ananya says. Now, her dream of becoming a Top Gun is well on its way.