The Chinese People's Liberation Army Ground Force has said in a statement that the first 10 female flight students trained by PLA Ground Force would join operational units in 2021.
The statement added that the 10 women are the first to be trained by the Ground Force to become aviators. The service has had some female pilots in its aviation units, but they were former PLA Air Force pilots flying fixed-wing planes.
The PLA Ground Force said that the female trainees were selected from high school graduates across the country in 2017, when the Ground Force began to recruit women for flight training. They are now students at the PLA Ground Force Aviation Institute.
The students completed their first solo flights at a Ground Force airport in southern Shanxi province, operating the French Gazelle light-duty helicopter to carry out some simple maneuvers, a video clip published by the Ground Force showed.
They will continue taking flight training, and after their graduation in 2021, they will be assigned to Ground Force units across the nation.
Pictures released by the Ground Force showed the women in front of several WZ-19 combat helicopters, hinting that they may operate such helicopters in the future.
Compared with aviation units of the PLA Air Force and the PLA Navy that mainly deploy fixed-wing aircraft, the Ground Force's aviation wing uses helicopters that include combat, reconnaissance and transport models.
The WZ-19 combat helicopter is developed by Aviation Industry Corp of China's Harbin Aircraft Industry Group. It is propelled by four blades driven by two turboshaft engines and has a maximum cruise speed of 245 kilometers per hour and an operational range of 700 kilometers, according to AVIC, which makes the aircraft.
The helicopter can carry eight missiles and two rocket launchers. To protect its pilots, it is equipped with armor plating and crash-resistant seats.
