Guwahati: President Droupadi Murmu, who on Saturday took her maiden sortie on the Sukhoi 30 MKI fighter aircraft at the Tezpur Air Force Station in Assam, became the 2nd female head of the state and 3rd President to achieve the feat. President Murmu flew the twin-seater multirole fighter jet developed by Russia's Sukhoi and built under licence by India's aerospace giant Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL).
While President Murmu is not the first head of the state to take the sortie in a fighter aircraft, she is the first to perform the task at the Tezpur air force station. Before President Murmu, her predecessor Ramnath Kovind, Pratibha Devi Singh Patil and Dr APJ Abdul Kalam have achieved the distinction to fly in fighter aircrafts.
Also read:President Droupadi Murmu flies maiden sortie on Sukhoi MKI fighter aircraft at Tezpur Air Force Station
Let us rewind back to the 2000s to revisit the historical sorties made by former Presidents of India.
Dr APJ Kalam makes history: On Jun. 8, 2006, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam became the first President to undertake a historic 30-minute sortie on the IAF's Sukhoi-30 MKI at the Lohegaon Airbase in Maharashtra's Pune. During the sortie, two Sukhois had accompanied Kalam, who was shown by the IAF officers how to locate the target in the air and on the ground with the help of radar.
First woman President to fly a Sukhoi sortie: Pratibha Devi Singh Patil, too had made history to become the first woman head of the state to take the sortie in a Sukhoi fighter aircraft on Nov. 25, 2009. Patil too had achieved the feat at the Lohegaon airbase in Pune and had flown at a height of over 2 km in the air. Two more planes had accompanied her aircraft during the sortie.
Ramnath Kovind experiences Sukhoi MKI sortie:President Murmu's predecessor Ramnath Kovind too had experienced a sortie in a Sukhoi 30 MKI simulator, during his visit to the IAF station Pune on Dec. 8, 2021. Ahead of her today's sortie on the Sukhoi MKI fighter, President was accorded the guard of honor by the air force. President Murmu began her two-day visit to Assam on Friday.
On the first day, she inaugurated the Gaj Utsav- 2023 at the Kaziranga National Park and also flagged off the Mount Kanchenjunga Expedition- 2023 at Guwahati. President Murmu also graced the function to mark the completion of 75 years of Gauhati High Court at Guwahati which was attended by Justice, D Y Chandrachud and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.
