Jordan’s Princess Salma Bint Abdullah made history as she became the first Jordanian woman to complete preliminary pilot training on fixed-wing aircraft, according to a statement from the Royal Hashemite Court.
King Abdullah II presented his daughter Salma with her wings in a ceremony at Amman’s Al Husseiniya Palace yesterday, after she completed pilot training with the Jordan Armed Forces, according to a press release by the Royal Hashemite Court.
Princess Salma, the third child of King Abdullah II – who is Supreme Commander of the Jordan Armed Forces – passed her theoretical and practical training and was honored by her father.
The ceremony was attended by her mother Queen Rania and her older brother, Crown Prince Hussein.
#Jordan’s king Abdullah presents Royal Air Force wings to his daughter Princess Salma upon completing her pilot training.
She made history as the first female pilot in the Hashemite kingdom.
Very exciting and an inspiration to women across the Middle East. #girlpower pic.twitter.com/UmpjUJAghZ— Danny Brown Wolf (@Dannyhbrown) January 9, 2020
While Salma is the first Jordanian woman to complete training for a fixed-wing aircraft, she is not the first one to finish pilot training in general.
Jordan’s first female helicopter pilot, Cadet Aya Basheer Ibrahim Alsourany, was trained in Pennsylvania at the end of 2018, according to the US Army.
Her brother, who is a first lieutenant in the Jordanian Armed Forces, took to Instagram to congratulate his sister.
“Brilliant and hard-working as always!” he wrote. “Congrats on receiving your wings and here’s to more success and achievements.”
The Jordanian royal family can count a few of their members as Sandhurst alumni, such as the late King Hussein, King Abdullah, and Prince Hussein.
