Caroline Aigle – the first woman fighter pilot in the French Air Force

Caroline Aigle – the first woman fighter pilot in the French Air Force

Commandant Caroline Aigle (12 September 1974 – 21 August 2007) was a French aviator who achieved a historical first when, at the age of 25, she became the first woman fighter pilot in the French Air Force. Her promising military career was cut short by death from cancer seven years later. On 2 October 2007, President Sarkozi posthumously awarded her the Médaille de l’Aéronautique (Aeronautics Medal).

Born in Montauban, Caroline Aigle spent her early years in Africa, where her father served as a military physician. After reaching her fourteenth birthday, she matriculated at the Lucée militaire de Saint-Cyr (Saint-Cyr Military High School), remaining for the three-year period from the second term until graduation. She subsequently proceeded to Prytanée Militaire, an advanced military high school, and then to the military academy wing of the prestigious Ecole Polytechnique, France’s foremost school of engineering. During her first year (1994–95), she fulfilled the requirements of her military duty while stationed with the 13h Battalion of the elite mountain infantry, the Chasseurs Alpins. She served her final year before graduation from the Polytechnique (1996–97) in the Ecole de l’Air, the French Air Force’s officer candidate school.

After graduating from the Polytechnique, Aigle chose to join the French Air Force. On 28 May 1999, she became the first woman to receive the Air Force’s coveted fighter pilot wings. She was assigned to the Mirage 2000-5 in the escadron 2/2 « Côte-d’Or » in 2000, and promoted to the rank of Commandant (roughly equivalent to Major) in 2005. Among the top candidates, she was also on the verge of being selected as an astronaut for the European Space Agency. By the time of her sudden death three weeks before her 33rd birthday (the cancer, a melomana, had been diagnosed only a month earlier), she had accumulated a total of 1600 hours of flight time.

Caroline Aigle was a keen athlete and represented the Air Force in inter-service sports competitions. She was the 1997 French military champion in triathlon, followed by the 1997 triathlon world championship in military team competition. Still competing in 1999, she and her team won the triathlon world military vice-championship. She was also a skydriver and free-fall parachutist.

Caroline Aigle was pregnant with Gabriel when the malignancy was first discovered, and refused to undergo an abortion despite the increased difficulty in cancer treatment options. Gabriel was delivered by caesarian section, five-and-a half months into term, fifteen days before her death on 21 August 2007.