Chinese Air Forces started on March 7 to recruit woman pilots for the eighth time in 12 provinces including Liaoning, Hebei and Shanxi. 30 qualified will come out of 150, 000 science students in senior high school.

China has had more than 300 female pilots

Since the founding of the People's Republic, China has nurtured over 300 woman pilots in seven groups, more than any other country in the world.

The woman pilots are all capable of round-the-clock flight and battle and can drive different types of transport aircrafts including large high-speed jet. The did excellent jobs in military exercises, transporting war equipment, flight of special planes, rescue and disaster relief, artificial precipitation, air probe and trial flight for scientific research. They created a number of records with wisdom and loyalty.

Yue Xicui, with 36 years' flight and over 6, 000 hours' safe flight, is the world's first pilot-turned women general; world's first women test pilot Zhang Yumei undertook successfully as many as 100 trial flights for scientific research in ten years; Liu Xiaolian is the first woman pilot that was conferred a medal; Wang Yun, China's first female captain for special plane, flied four types of aircrafts and 5, 500 hours in safety; Jin Wenya, who entered Air Force Command Institute in 2000, is first Chinese woman pilot pursuing a master's degree.

First woman astronaut likely to come out of this group of pilots

Space engineering is usually composed of three steps: space flight, space laboratory and transfer station, and space station, each of which is divided into short-term, mid-term and long-term stages. According to expert in aerospace medicine, in order to give better play of women's advantages during the mankind's exploration of the unknown space, Russia and the United States usually absorb woman pilots in the second phase of each step.

Presently Chinese female pilots can not meet the demand of first space tour by women, therefore the air forces stepped up selecting and cultivating female pilots in a bid of sending excellent ones into the space by 2012.

Sources with the recruitment department said, the recruitment will be launched on a larger scale and the standards will be stricter. All of these are aimed to single out China's first woman astronaut. However, the final result depends on the test by time.

Strict examinations

"I want to be a pilot!" Yan Jingru, a high school student in east China's Shandong Province voices the aspiration shared by many girls. However, the flight dream is filled with difficulty.

Those who want to become trainee pilots have to take medical checkups on as many as 1, 000 items in 116 categories as well as tests on intelligence, memory, attention distribution, imitation, physical coordination, stamina and explosive force.

After four-year courses in college, talent students will be likely to take part in pilot selection. Those who excel will then take two to three years' training and finally realize their dream of space flight.