Zhang Xiao, a pilot assigned to a brigade with the air force under the Chinese PLA Eastern Theater Command
As a member of China's first batch of female fighter pilots, she participated in the Chinese National Day parade and flew over Tian'anmen Square, and also successfully handled special and emergency situations multiple times in air patrol tasks. She is Zhang Xiao, a pilot assigned to a brigade with the air force under the PLA Eastern Theater Command.
After 19 years of service in the military, the successful disposal of every special situation is still fresh in her memory no matter how many years have passed.
She recalled that once the low clouds suddenly covered the air above the airport after midnight when she intended to descend for landing as schedule. If she failed to get through the clouds at specified height and see the runway, she had to pull up and go round. Under such conditions, she overcame the adverse weather effect, and successfully landed.
In 2009, at the parade marking the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, Zhang Xiao, then 23 years old, as a member among China's first batch of female fighter pilots and together with another 14 other female fellows, piloted the JL-8 aircraft to form the Chinese Air Force female pilot echelon and flew over Tian'anmen Square.
After completing the parade task, Zhang joined the frontline combat forces and started to undertake air patrol tasks as one of the few female fighter pilots at the frontline.
Zhang considers herself "very lucky", for she has grown up alongside the ten years of rapid development of the Chinese Air Force and the upgrade of weapons and equipment. As a female fighter pilot flying on the frontline, Zhang will embrace the challenge of piloting new type of aircraft.
Zhang's eyes are glowing while talking about piloting new plane. "Every pilot dreams of the opportunity of flying the most advanced aircraft for our country."
Zhang is now a mother of two children.
"One weekend, the alarm suddenly sounded. My child said, 'Mom, bad guys are coming.' I replied, 'If one day war comes, you should remember the sound, it tells you that mom is going to fly the plane to beat up the bad guys'," she recalled.
"My child stared at me. He was just over two years old, so I thought he didn't understand. However, he suddenly came and hugged me, with his hands patting me on the back and saying, 'When I grow up, I also want to fly planes and beat up bad guys'."
At that moment, she realized that she had sown a seed of defending the country in the heart of a little child.
