China's first group of female carrier-based aircraft pilot cadets have completed their training and passed graduation assessments, marking a milestone in the development of the country's naval aviation personnel, the Naval Aviation University said on Saturday.
The graduates will be assigned to frontline naval units, where they are expected to deploy aboard aircraft carriers and other surface vessels for operational missions.
All born in the 2000s, the women were recruited in 2023 as part of the People's Liberation Army Navy's first intake of female pilot candidates. Before joining the university, they had already earned bachelor's degrees from civilian or military institutions.
After rigorous selection and systematic training, they completed all required flight exercises and demonstrated proficiency in a range of vessel-based operations, including day and night landings, takeoffs and landings in restricted areas, and search-and-rescue missions.
Among them, Han Meng chose flying over a promising academic career.
A pharmaceutical engineering graduate, Han had earned numerous honors in college and secured a place in the postgraduate entrance examination interview.
When the PLA Navy announced its first recruitment of female shipborne pilot trainees in 2023, she decided to pursue another dream. "If I didn't give it a try, I would've regretted it for the rest of my life," she said.
The transition from university life to military training proved demanding. A training program normally completed by military cadets over three years was compressed into six months, with standards unchanged and elimination a constant possibility.
"I couldn't give up on the ground before even getting into an aircraft," said Han as she recalled difficult moments during training.
Through repeated practice on flight simulators and painstaking reviews of her mistakes, she gradually overcame setbacks and completed the training with outstanding results.
Wang Mengdi took a different route to the cockpit. Originally a student in logistics at an army academy, she set her sights on naval aviation after learning about the recruitment program.
Flight training presented an entirely unfamiliar discipline, but Wang developed a habit of reviewing every flight and recording lessons in notebooks that eventually filled several volumes.
Her persistence paid off, allowing her to complete the demanding training program and qualify for frontline assignments.
"Once an aircraft takes off, who would ask whether the pilot is a man or a woman?" Wang said, emphasizing that flight skills and professional standards apply equally to all pilots.
As the PLA Navy expands from land-based aviation toward carrier-based operations, the Naval Aviation University has moved advanced exercises previously conducted only in operational units into its training programs, accelerating the development of combat-ready pilots.
Before graduation, the female trainees completed more than 100 vessel-based takeoff and landing exercises.
In July 2024, they also joined a naval task group on a 20-day offshore training and overseas visit mission, covering 3,300 nautical miles and participating in navigation, meteorological analysis and other shipboard training.
"Graduation is the conclusion of a pioneering journey at one stage, and a new departure for fulfilling our duties in combat," trainee representative Lin Qi (pseudonym) said.
Xinhua contributed to this story.
zhaoyimeng@chinadaily.com.cn
