The first Indian woman to get a British aviator’s licence, Aban Chenoy is
remembered during her birth centenary
Beyniaz Edulji
No history of Hyderabad’s aviation can ever be complete without mention of Aban Pestonji Chenoy, the teenager who in 1938 became not only Hyderabad’s first woman pilot but also the first Indian woman to obtain a British pilot’s licence from the Portsmouth Aero Club, UK. Her feats are remembered by the aviation fraternity even today with her photograph prominently displayed at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport at Shamshabad, Hyderabad, as well as in The Nizam’s Museum.
Born in 1919, Chenoy was the first woman member of the Hyderabad State Aero Club, being proposed by the state pilot of Jaipur, her mother’s......