The epic aerial combat sequence from the first edition of the movie ‘Top Gun’ culminates with Iceman saying these words to Maverick on the deck of a US Navy carrier. As a fighter pilot, the ultimate honour is this very trust that you are bestowed with by your fellow squadron mates, when they know that you have their back, no matter what.
As young Ananya was growing up, she watched her father, a fighter pilot in the Indian Air Force (IAF), nurture this very bond with his fellow squadron pilots. Having virtually grown up in the IAF, there was absolutely no other profession that she could imagine being a part of. As the first women fighter pilots of the IAF entered service in 2016, Ananya saw that her lifelong dream was now a possibility. Having completed her B Tech in Electronics and Communication, she was selected for training for the flying branch of IAF. She was commissioned as a fighter pilot in December 2021.
Air Commodore Sanjay Sharma, Ananya’s father, was commissioned in the fighter stream of the IAF in 1989. He has had an extensive experience of fighter operations, having commanded a Mig-21 Squadron as well as a frontline fighter station.
The father-daughter duo created history on 30 May 2022, when they flew in the same formation of Hawk-132 aircraft at Air Force Station Bidar, where Flying Officer Ananya Sharma is undergoing her training before she graduates onto faster and more superior fighter aircraft of the IAF. There has not been any previous instance in the IAF where a father and his daughter were part of the same fighter formation for a mission. It was the mission where Air Commodore Sanjay and Flying Officer Ananya were more than just father and daughter. They were comrades, who had full faith in each other as fellow wingmen would.