Queen Suthida flies solo in Gripen fighter at Thai air force base

Queen Suthida of Thailand flew a Saab JAS 39C Gripen on her own for the first time on October 8, 2026, at the Royal Thai Air Force's Wing 7 in Surat Thani province, the Bureau of the Royal Household said in an account of the flight.

The sortie began at 10:06 local time from the base in Phun Phin district. King Maha Vajiralongkorn watched, along with Air Chief Marshal Seksan Kantha, commander of the Royal Thai Air Force, and the Wing 7 commander.

Before taking off, the Queen received a briefing on the flight plan, inspected the single-seat fighter and taxied to Runway 22. The flight lasted 41 minutes.

After landing, the King gave her a bouquet and fixed a Golden Gripen Order Patch to her left sleeve. The palace account said the Gripen Order, an honorary association in Sweden, provided the patch and accepted her as a full member. It also described her as Thailand's first female Gripen pilot.

The flight concluded a conversion course on Fighter-Attack Aircraft Type 20, the air force's designation for the Gripen, which she took up at the invitation of the service. The palace said the course followed the air force's regular Gripen training syllabus, starting with 45 academic and emergency-procedure subjects between June and July 2026 and then 20 simulator sorties. She went on to fly the two-seat JAS 39D with an instructor, logging about 10 hours before moving to the single-seat JAS 39C.

Her first flight was on May 13, 2010, in a Cessna T-41D with Squadron 604 at Wing 6 in Bangkok, and she has more than 1,188 flying hours.