Queen Suthida of Thailand sits in the cockpit of a Royal Thai Air Force JAS 39 Gripen fighter jet before her flight. Both Queen Suthida and Thai Royal Noble Consort Sineenat Bilaskalayani are qualified pilots. (Royal Thai Government)

Thai Queen Is First Queen in the World to Fly a Fighter Jet

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Queen Suthida of Thailand, the wife of reigning King Vajiralongkorn since 2019, is a former flight attendant and military officer with a passion for flying.

Suthida Bajrasudha Bimalalakshana isn’t as famous around the world as Queen Camilla of the United Kingdom. Still, she arguably has a far more impressive CV—as a former flight attendant, an officer in the Royal Thai Armed Forces, a member of the King of Thailand’s bodyguard, later its commander, and, since May 2019, the Queen of Thailand.

Queen Suthida currently holds the ranks of general, admiral, and air chief marshal—but unlike Queen Camilla, who is an honorary vice-admiral of the Royal Navy, a colonel of the Grenadier Guards, and colonel-in-chief of several other British Army units, the Thai queen does more than just take part in ceremonial duties while wearing a fancy uniform. She is a qualified pilot with a passion for flying, and has accumulated more than 1,100 flight hours.

On Thursday, Queen Suthida, the fourth wife of King Vajiralongkorn (Rama X), became the world’s first female monarch to be a trained fighter pilot. She also became the first woman in the Southeast Asian nation certified on the multirole aircraft.

The queen made a solo flight, lasting 41 minutes, in a Royal Thai Air........

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