New Delhi: The President of India Droupadi Murmu is all set to undertake her maiden sortie on Sukhoi-30 MKI fighter aircraft from Tezpur Air Force Station in Assam on Saturday (April 8). Her sortie close to Arunachal Pradesh comes under a week after China released third batch of names in the Indian state, which it calls as South Tibet.
According to official sources, President Murmu who is on a two-day visit to Assam from Friday, will inaugurate the Gaj Utsav- 2023 at the Kaziranga National Park on April 7. Later in the day, she will flag off the Mount Kanchenjunga Expedition- 2023 at Guwahati. President Murmu will also grace the function being organised to mark the completion of 75 years of Gauhati High Court at Guwahati on Friday.
Tomorrow, she will fly in a sortie on the fighter aircraft Sukhoi- 30 MKI at Tezpur Air Force Station. Although President Droupadi Murmu is not the first President to fly a sortie in a fighter aircraft, this will be the first time Tezpur Air Force Station will be hosting a sortie for the President of India.
The Supreme Commander of the tri-services Army, Air Force, and Navy followed the footsteps of her predecessors who too flew in fighter aircrafts. The first woman President of India, Pratibha Patil made history when she flew in the fighter jet Sukhoi 30 MKI from the air force base in Pune. She became the first woman head of state to fly in a warplane. Donning a special 'G-suit' worn by pilots to counter gravitational effect, Patil sitting in the co-pilot's seat in the cockpit waved to the people gathered at the airbase. Former President, APL Abdul Kalam also took to the skies in the Sukhoi fighter jet in 2006.
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