Blue Angels' first female pilot takes flight

CBS ^ | April 10, 2015

[don-o]

When military aviation buffs pack into the Marine Corps Beaufort Air Show in South Carolina, 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. U.S. Marine Corps Capt. Katie Higgins is the first female pilot in the team's 69-year history. Michelle Miller took to the sky to see how Higgins got her wings.

[Domandred]

Women are better than men at making sammiches.

Nope men are better at that too.

[Paid_Russian_Troll]

I believe there are more females phisically capable to handle jet than ones capable to load ammunition into a tank. Or carry a mortar and many other things like that. It doesn’t mean it is a good idea to put women in jets but it is the least worst idea considering them in frontline roles.

[semaj]

Remember what happened to the Thunderbirds when some idiot thought it a good idea to include a female pilot in the formation?

[cpdiii]

I guess these guys know their business but it isn’t likely she’d even be there if standards weren’t lowered in the first place.

I think Sky Dancer would not agree with you.

[Lazamataz]

Blondie made that.

[Lazamataz]

What’s an iron?

[SkyDancer]

Right! Lowering standards for a woman pilot with the Blue Angels would be suicidal. I don't know what the deal is with guys thinking there are things that women are not supposed to be doing or saying that if they can, the standards were lowered.

Flying with the Blue Angels is precise and any deviation in pattern flying would be disastrous.

I'm sure now guys here will jump all over this post - figures.

[rabidralph]

She is a team member. But the headline is misleading as they are implying she’s flying one of the jets. I’m sure the mechs don’t go around saying they’re Blue Angels.

[rabidralph]

LOL! Naughty!

[Doogle]

making friends

[Paid_Russian_Troll]

In fact it is possible to deploy women under same condition as men ignoring their peculiarities, leaving them to cope with it by themselves.

[don-o]

I’m sure the mechs don’t go around saying they’re Blue Angels.

Actually, the YT vids I linked above seem to say the the support personnel are considered Blue Angels as well.

[hoagy62]

Here's a photo....

[Sirius Lee]

If Ted Cruz had a younger sister...

[PLMerite]

"The title of the article is very misleading."

That's the idea. They want the majority of people who will only skim the headline to think:

Instead of:

Not that flying a C-130 with ROCKETS is totally shabby...

[Vaquero]

Yes she is. Proud she is representing our country as a Blue Angel.

[Thank You Rush]

“”It took a long time in the video to get to that fact.””

You can say that again. The title and subject were to have us believe she was part of the precision team...misleading to say the least!

We were fortunate to watch the Blue Angels from our backyard in Irvine, CA when they performed at El Toro Marine Base. Only a couple of times did we drive to the base as the traffic was always horrendous even for the couple of miles we had to travel. We saw shows from 1981 until 2000 when we moved away and I’m not sure when they were stopped because of base closure. I remember how nail biting it was when there were cloud layers whether it would be possible to even have the shows over three days....I don’t recall any postponements. I do remember the thrill tho’. Miss them....

[xone]

In fact it is possible to deploy women under same condition as men ignoring their peculiarities,

It is in fact not possible to do so in the US. As a result, having women compromises the mission.

[Conan the Librarian]

We were going to go tomorrow for the show, but, now we can’t. Just have too much to do.

Always love to see the Blue Angels give a show.

[tanknetter]

My husband is a retired Navy pilot. He tells me it takes great physical strength to wrestle an F18 in flight while doing those maneuvers.

With all due respect to your husband, would you mind asking him how a plane with fly-by-wire flight controls needs to be "wrestled" with by the human pilot and not the computer?