Caroline Aigle, First woman fighter pilot (1974-2007, Year of Entry: 1994)

After completing her studies at Polytechnique, Caroline Aigle was educated at the École de l'Air (School of the Air Force) in Salon-de-Provence, the École de l'Aviation de Chasse (School of Pursuit Aviation) in Tours, and finally the École de Transformation Opérationnelle (School of Operational Transformation). On May 28, 1999, she became the first licensed female fighter pilot in France. She joined Orange Air Base 115, and, in 2006, was assigned to flight safety by the Metz Air Force Command. She accumulated a total of 1,500 flight hours, mainly on the Mirage 2000-5. After contracting a rapidly progressing cancer, this world champion in military triathlon passed away in 2007. Aigle had just passed the written exam for entry into the Collège Interarmées de Défense (Joint Defense Services College) and was preparing to take her first astronaut tests the following year at the European Space Agency.