Five women are among 24 graduates of the test pilot program at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., class of 2020, a record number.

The rigorous, yearlong program at the only test pilot school of the U.S. Air Force accepts about 45 pilots and engineers per year, from about 300 applicants. This year, about 20% of applicants were female, double the usual number.

"The fundamental key to success in aerospace flight test and evaluation is the individual member of the flight test team: the flight test pilot, of course, but nowadays the trained flight test engineer and navigator as well," the base said in a statement. "Without him -- and increasingly, her -- the fundamental work of the Air Force Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base would literally be impossible."

Capts. Casey Horgan, Rachel Williams, Sarah Vorgert, Kalyn Tung and civilian Raina Duncan, also known by their call signs, Hulk, Tumble, Booster, PsiPhi and Shade, respectively, are the school's newest female graduates.

All have significant experience piloting an array of Air Force aircraft, and will now enter testing programs of the F-22 fighter plane and C-17 and C-130 cargo and transport planes.

The school was initiated in 1944, and 80 women are graduates. The first, Lt. Jane Holley, was the first to attend, in 1974, as a flight test engineer. The first pilot was Capt. Jacquelyn Parker, in 1978. Two became astronauts, and one, Eileen Collins, was commander of the space shuttle Columbia in a 1999 mission.

The Air Force Test Pilot School welcomed its first female commandant, Col. Sebrina Pabon, in July.

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