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Switzerland to get its first female fighter pilot

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Switzerland to get its first female fighter pilot
Fanny Chollet with two colleagues. Photo: Swiss army

A woman from the canton of Vaud will become the first woman in Switzerland to fly a Swiss army fighter plane when she completes her training next year.

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On December 15th First Lieutenant Fanny Chollet obtained her professional military pilot ‘wings’ along with seven other trainees and can now go on to an additional year’s transition training to learn how to fly an F/A-18 fighter plane, the army said in a press release.
 
On completion, Chollet will become the first woman in the Swiss army to fly a fighter jet.
 
 
Nicknamed ‘Shotty’, the 26-year-old from Saint-Légier has wanted to be a fighter pilot since the age of 17, the army said.
 
“Once I’d made that decision, it was very clear in my head: I wanted to do this job and I was ready to do anything to get there,” she is quoted as saying.
 
She started her pilot training in 2012 and also completed a degree in aviation along the way.
 
The F/A Hornet is a twin-engine supersonic plane with a top speed of nearly 2,000km/hr. It is used by the air forces of several countries.
 
 
 

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