Sitharaman takes to skies in Sukhoi-30

Clad in an olive-green pilot's G-suit, Nirmala Sitharaman on Wednesday took to the skies in a Sukhoi-30 MKI, the first Indian woman Defence minister to go on a sortie on the IAF's frontline combat jet. The 58-year-old leader sat in the rear seat behind the pilot in the cockpit of the two-seater fighter jet, which took off from the Jodhpur air base. 

With the 45-minute sortie aboard the supersonic jet, she also became the second Indian woman leader to fly in a Sukhoi-30 MKI after then president Pratibha Patil did so in 2009. When he was the President, APJ Abdul Kalam had also flown in the fighter jet.