In sports world we have often heard people saying that PV Sindhu is flying high after she became the first Indian to clinch the World Tour title when she defeated arch-rival Nozomi Okuhara in the 2018 World Tour final. But on Saturday that term literally came to life when the Olympic silver-medallist flew in HAL's Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) Tejas at the ongoing Aero India air show in Bengaluru. With that flight, Sindhu became the first-ever woman to have co-piloted the Tejas and also the youngest person to have taken flight on the aircraft.
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However, Sindhu is India's top-ranked badminton player and took part in the event as Aero India 2019 observed Women's Day at Asia's largest military aviation exhibition at the Yelahanka Air Force base in Bengaluru. Sindhu got into the aircraft in a traditional green dress and climbed up the ladder to enter the cockpit of the aircraft. She was then seen waving to the crowd from there.
Sindhu was the co-pilot in the aircraft that was flown by the Chief of Army Staff General Bipin Rawat. Saturday’s event tried to showcase women's achievements in the aerospace sector and women achievers in the sector will be felicitated on the occasion while a book and film on 'Women in Aviation' will also be released. Tejas is built by the state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) and is a single-engine multirole light fighter. On Wednesday, Tejas received its final operational clearance (FOC) from the Centre for Military Airworthiness and Certification (Cemilac) for induction into the Indian Air Force (IAF) as a weaponised fighter jet in its operational fleet.
Recently, Sindhu lost the senior national title in women's singles for the second year running to Saina Nehwal with a scoreline of 21-18, 21-15 in Guwahati. She will now head to Birmingham to prepare for the All England Badminton Championships, which will take place from March 6 to March 10.
