Wang Chen, a native of Qingdao, Shandong Province, is a pilot cadet at the PLA Air Force Xi'an Flying College. She was enlisted by the air force as a female pilot cadet at the age of 17, flew the advanced jet trainer at the age of 20, and transited to the heavy fighter jet at the age of 23.
Recently, she and other four girls completed their maiden solo flights of J-11B heavy fighter jets, being the first-batch female pilot cadets who were direcetly trained to fly heavy fighter jets in military college.
Emerged from more than 3,000 applicants nationwide in 2017, Wang was enrolled by the PLA Air Force Aviation University as one of the air force’s 11th batch of female pilot cadets.
After two years of theoretical study, Wang began primary jet trainer training in June 2019 and was awarded third-class individual merit for outstanding performance soon after. In June 2020, she graduated from the university with good physical fitness, excellent theoretical and training results. Two months later, Wang came to the PLA Air Force Xi'an Flying College and transit to fly advanced jet trainer.
Being used to train fighter pilots, the advanced jet trainer features high speed, flight altitude, overload and risk factors. It is a big challenge even for male cadets. In order to withstand the greater flight intensity and overload, Wang Chen and other female cadets insisted on doing resistance training every day to build muscle, in case of blackout, grayout or loss of consciousness when pulling up with overload.
In November 2020, Wang and other female cadets took part in a solo flight test of advanced jet trainer. As the first test taker, she completed repeated takeoffs, landings, and air turns in one hour of air flight, and finally passed with a perfect score.
By this time, Wang has been qualified for four types of aircraft, namely, CJ-6, JL-8, JJ-9 and J-7G, taking a step closer to the goal of flying heavy fighters.
Heavy fighters are larger in size, with longer range and larger bomb load, posing higher physical, psychological, technical and tactical requirements for pilots. In the northwest desert of our country, Wang Chen and other cadets were trained for nearly three years, and finally, they were elegible for the test on solo flight in J-11B.
On the test day, Wang was the first to take off. She completed a series of advanced maneuvers and specialized movements with high difficulties, fulfilking the task as expected.
Next, this batch of female cadets will take courses on flight formation, low altitude flight, air combat, etc. They will graduate and join the frontline troops this year as schduled.
Future combat requires more precise control of weapon platforms. Compared with male pilots, female pilots are more careful, meticulous and cool-headed. They have a greater advantage in precise manipulationand situation judgement, calmer and more methodical.
In the past six years, Wang Chen and her peers have grown up from ordinary high school students to female pilots flying heavy fighters. In the future, they will fly more advanced warplanes and have a brighter future.