Cavalier India Defence Training Academy

Vijayalakshmi Ramanan retired from IAF as Wing Commander in 1979. The 96-year-old passed away in Bengaluru on 18 October. By Special Arrangement Wing Commander (retd) Vijayalakshmi Ramanan, the first woman officer of the Indian Air Force (IAF), had more than one ‘first’ to her credit. She was not only the first woman to wear saree as uniform, she also designed the uniform. Wing Commander (retd) Ramanan passed away on Sunday (18 October) at the age of 96 in Bengaluru. Her ashes were immersed in the Cauvery river near Srirangapatna Tuesday by her family. S.V.L. Narayan, her son-in-law, told that Ramanan had developed health complications in the past 10 days and was shifted to the IAF’s Command Hospital. “She passed away peacefully Sunday night. She was very active till the very end. Days before she passed away, Ramanan had even given a handwritten note to her doctor,” Narayan said. Born on 27 February 1924 , Ramanan did her MBBS from the Madras Medical College in 1943 and was named the b...

It gives us immense pleasure and pride to announce that a former trainee at Cavalier India - Wing Commander Supriya Chaturvedi has made it to the pages of history, becoming the first lady officer in the Indian Air Force to be commissioned on a permanent basis.  The Supreme Court of India had permitted entry of women on the basis of permanent commission in the Indian armed forces.  We congratulate and wish Wing Commander Supriya all the very best for a bright, prosperous and colourful future ahead!!

The story involves an Indian Air Force Pilot, Americans, Russians and a mystery woman Flying Officer Mervyn Pinto seated in a fighter plane at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada I was on summer vacation at my grandparent’s house in Pune when I first watched ‘Top Gun’. I remember being glued to the television, transfixed by Maverick fearlessly manoeuvring his plane through the sky while ‘Danger Zone’ blasted in the background. My grandmother was sitting by, sipping tea when she laughed and said, “Oh, I remember when your grandfather was Top Gun.” For a second, I thought I heard wrong. Did she just say my grandfather was Top Gun? “Yes, of course,” she said nonchalantly as she glared at Tom Cruise on screen with narrow eyes as if to say, “My husband did it better.”  To my grandfather’s irritation (“It was no big deal,” he grumbled), his old flying logbooks were pulled out and we sat around the dining table pouring over pictures from his days as a fighter pilot with the Indian Air Force....