<Tr> <Th> </Th> <Td> (2008 - 03 - 15) 15 March 2008 </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Spouse (s) </Th> <Td> P.D. Sharma, R.P Thakral </Td> </Tr> <P> Sarla Thakral (1914--15 March 2008) was the first Indian woman to fly an aircraft . Born in 1914, she earned an aviation pilot license in 1936 at the age of 21 and flew a Gypsy Moth solo . She had a four - year - old daughter . After obtaining the initial licence, she persevered and completed one thousand hours of flying in the aircraft owned by the Lahore Flying Club . Her husband P.D. Sharma whom she married at 16 and comes from a family which had 9 pilots encouraged her to achieve it . While Sharma had been the first Indian to get his airmail pilot's license, flying between Karachi and Lahore; his wife would be first woman in India to attain her' A' license when she accumulated over 1000 hours of flying . </P> <P> Tragically, Captain Sharma died in an airplane crash in 1939 . After some time, his young widow tried to apply to train for her commercial pilot license, but World War II had begun and civil training was suspended . With a child to raise, and needing to earn her livelihood, Thakral abandoned her plans to become a commercial pilot, returning to Lahore and attending the Mayo School of Art where she trained in the Bengal school of painting, obtaining a diploma in fine arts . </P>

First woman to fly a plane in india