Karnataka: Father-Daughter Duo Script History By Flying Fighter Jets Together

Indian Air Force’s Air Commodore Sanjay Sharma and Flying Officer Ananya Sharma scripted history by flying a Hawk together over Bidar, Karnataka. They are the first father-daughter duo to fly fighter jets together.

Reportedly, the father-daughter duo took the flight on May 30, 2022, when they flew in the same form of Hawk 132 aircraft at Bidar Air Force Station where Officer Ananya is undergoing her training.

Father-Daughter Duo Script History

According to the India Today report, Ananya had “virtually” grown up in the IAF watching her father who’s a fighter pilot with IAF and was thence gravitated to the profession.

When women fighter pilots first entered service in 2016, Ananya saw her chance to get into the IAF. Ananya, who has B Tech in Electronics and Communication, was selected for training for the flying branch and was commissioned as a fighter pilot in 2021.

Her father, reportedly, had been in the fighter stream of the IAF since 1989 and has extensive experience.

Similar instances

Earlier, according to a January ETimes report, a mother and her daughter created aviation history as they, for the first time, flew a commercial passenger aircraft together.

When they took flight together for the first time a few days ago, SkyWest Airlines employees Captain Suzy Garrett and her daughter Donna Garrett made aviation history. Suzy, 56, who has been a pilot for more than 30 years, had already made headlines for being one of the first women employed by SkyWest Airlines.

A similar incident happened with Jennie Olafson’s heartwarming story with Air Canada when Olafson and her father James Sullivan, reportedly piloted a Boeing 787 Dreamliner on a round-trip Air Canada aircraft from Vancouver to Taipei, Taiwan.

With reference to this news, formation flight in aviation was invented when fighter aircraft were tasked with accompanying reconnaissance aircraft during World War I.

Military aircraft always fly in formations of at least two since it was found that pairs of aircraft were more combat-effective than single aircraft. By the end of World War II, pilots had identified additional tactical benefits of formation flying, such as improved stability and superior visibility.

Feature image credit: Rahul Singh (Twitter)

Suggested Reading: Father-daughter Duo Fly Last Flight Together as British Airways Pilots