RAF Red Arrows Get First Woman Pilot

November 17, 2009 — Kirsty Moore wasn’t the first woman to try out for the RAF Red Arrows aerobatic team. But she was the first selected. Moore, who began her training earlier this month at Royal Air Force Scampton in Lincolnshire, has 1,500-plus hours in the air and will begin performing with the team next year. A flight lieutenant, Moore will stay with the Red Arrows until 2012, which means she will fly at the London Olympics opening ceremony, the Daily Mail reported. The 31-year-old competed with 40 others to win the job, with nine of the best taking part in a weeklong competition in Cyprus to test their skills. "Hopefully in a small way, by me being a Red Arrows pilot, some girls might think that this is something they could be part of and they should go for it," she said. Moore is the daughter of a retired RAF navigator who used to take her as a child to see the Red Arrows, Reuters reported. She joined the RAF in 1998, becoming a Hawk instructor and then Tornado pilot. She has served on two operations in Iraq in support of British, American and Iraqi ground forces. The RAF has had female pilots since 1991, and female fast jet pilots since 1994. However, across the RAF, only 60 out of 2,040 trained pilots are women, the Daily Mail reported. "Having the opportunity to represent the Royal Air Force is a great honor, and I am delighted to have been selected for that role," Moore said in the Reuters article. "It is certainly a major personal achievement for me - just as it is for every pilot that is chosen for the team." Moore's appointment has taken a long time, and one of the reasons for that is equipment, The Guardian reported. G-suits, needed to withstand pressures at high speed, were not female-friendly. "Gender just isn't an issue," says Moore's commander, Ben "Baz" Murphy, who will fly to the immediate right, and just ahead, of her Red Three plane in next year's aerobatics. "The skills are the same and the crucial thing is to work as a team."

Kirsty Moore is the first woman to be selected for the RAF Red Arrows team. The Red Arrows' first female pilot, Kirsty Moore, walks with team members after a practice session at R.A.F Scampton in Lincoln, central England, on November 12, 2009. Photo credit: Reuters/Darren Staples

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