They came to the battlefield late, but they took over the reins of the bull of a workhorse like a natural. These are the women fighter pilots of the Indian Air Force who flew the Mig-21 Bison. They have since transitioned to advanced fighters like the Dassault Rafale, Su-30MKI, and the LCA Tejas, but their very first combat flights were on the MiG-21. As the jets made their last sortie into the sunset on Friday, the flypast over Chandigarh Air Force Station was led by Squadron Leader Priya Sharma. Among the many reasons the MiG-21 will be remembered is that it was the first fighter jet ever flown by women in the Indian Air Force, with a woman leading its final flypast.

The Indian Air Force (IAF) shattered glass ceilings in 2016 by inducting its first women into the fighter pilot strea

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