China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force has launched a program to train talented high school students as pilots, military sources said on Monday.

The Air Force had begun a special class in Baoding No. 1 High School, in Hebei Province, to train selected students, Wu Mou, director of the Air Force's bureau responsible for pilot recruitment, told Xinhua.

Twenty-four students from the first grade at the senior high school, will take special physical trainings to improve their flexibility, coordination and balance.

They will also take aviation education programs along with the standard curriculum and operate paramotors and gliders in aviation clubs to gain flying experience.

The students were selected from 350 candidates from 59 high schools in the province after a series of physical and psychological exams.

To become a member of the class, a candidate had to meet strict requirements for height (162cm to 175cm), weight (45kg to 48kg), have a an excellent sense of three-dimensional space and eyesight, according to a regulation issued by the Air Force.

The qualified students should have no criminal record and no girlfriends, according to the regulation.

The PLA Air Force recruits about 1,000 pilot trainees each year mainly from graduates of high schools, colleges and universities. Those graduates from the Air Force's special class need to pass the national college entrance examination before being recruited.

The PLA has trained students with outstanding physical and psychological capabilities at the last year of senior high school since 1998. The class in Baoding No. 1 High School is the first for the Air Force to put the training in an earlier phase.

Wu said the Air Force planned to set up 10 more special classes at the first year of senior high schools around the country by 2012.

The PLA Air Force planned to recruit about 1,100 pilot trainees this year from China's high school and college graduates.