^^^ Flying upside down, no hands! ^^^^^^ Blue Angels pilot breaks sound, gender barriers“
^^^ Flying upside down, no hands! ^^^^^^ Blue Angels pilot breaks sound, gender barriers“When military aviation buffs pack into the Marine Corps Beaufort Air Show in South Carolina this weekend, they’ll be wowed by the Navy’s Blue Angels. But a new kind of history will also take flight in the team: a woman in the cockpit, CBS News’ Michelle Miller reports.For eight months each year, the team of 10 pilots tours airshows around the country demonstrating staggering feats of aerial precision, sometimes as close as 18 inches apart.“I saw the Blue Angels fly when I was a young kid,” Marine Corps Capt. Katie Higgins said. “I was definitely inspired by that.”Higgins is a third-generation military aviator and the first female pilot in the team’s 69-year history.“My dad was an A-7 pilot initially, and then he transferred to the F-18 Hornet, which is actually out here on the line,” Higgins said. “It’s a great family legacy to have, that’s for sure.”Now, she’s providing the inspiration.“I think by including a lady on the team, that just shows little girls and guys that women can do whatever they put their mind to,” Higgins said. “Little girls have told me that they didn’t even know that ladies could fly aircraft, that women could be in the cockpit.”They’ve been in American military cockpits for more than 20 years, but it’s taken this long for a woman to become part of the Blue Angels team.“Well, honestly, I would tell ‘em to watch the demo,” Higgins said. “They can’t tell the difference between mine and the other two pilots on here because I fly it just as well as they do.”“I definitely didn’t come on the team to break any barriers or anything like that, that definitely wasn’t my agenda,” Higgins said. “It just so happened that I was the first female to perform in a demo here, and if that is inspiring to people, if that’s inspiring to little girls around the country, then I’m doing my job.”Read the full piece and watch the AWESOME video of Higgins flying here -- source link
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