Sarla Thukral, India’s first female pilot

Sarla Thukral was India’s first female pilot, flying solo at the age of 21.

Thukral was born in Delhi in 1914 and went to Lahore later that year. Thukral began her own training and obtained an initial licence after being inspired by her husband, PD Sharma, an airmail pilot from a family of aviators.

She is claimed to have taken her first solo flight while draped in a traditional saree in the cockpit of a small double-winged plane.

The Gypsy Moth, a British two-seat touring and instructional aircraft developed into a series of aircraft by the de Havilland Aircraft Company in the 1920s, was Thukral’s first commercial flight.

She subsequently persisted and earned her A licence, a first for an Indian woman, after logging 1,000 hours of flight time in the Lahore Flying Club’s aircraft. She then started her training to become a commercial pilot.

In 1939, her spouse died in an aviation crash. Thukral attempted to apply for a commercial pilot licence after that, but the advent of World War II halted her civil aviation training.

Thukral decided to forego her intentions to become a full-time commercial pilot at that point.

She returned to Lahore and enrolled in the Mayo School of Arts to pursue fine arts and painting (now the National College of Arts).

She returned to Delhi later in her career and continued painting, as well as having a successful career in apparel and jewellery design.