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Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Women in Aviation News, 3/25/08

BA's first female pilot at controls for historic T5 flight
This is Captain Lynn Barton who will make aviation history by piloting the first flight into Heathrow Terminal 5 when it opens for business on Thursday.

Her Boeing 747 - flight number BA026 - carrying 350 passengers will arrive at the £4.3billion terminal from Hong Kong at 4.50am.

Captain Barton, 51, who became British Airways' first female pilot in 1987, is "absolutely thrilled" at being chosen for the job.

She applied to operate the inaugural T5 flight last month while she was on holiday in Barbados.

"It was my husband's idea to bid for the flight but the timing meant I had to tear myself off the beach to find a computer so that I could apply for the airline's flight-bidding system," she said. "I never thought I'd be in with a chance of actually getting the flight."

She had to wait, however, until she returned to Britain to find she had won it. "I was absolutely thrilled. T5 has been the focus of the airline's future for several years now and to operate the first flight is a huge honour. I can't wait."


See link for complete article.

Women pilots: A weapon to be used

by Airman 1st Class Erica Stewart
36th Operations Group Public Affairs

3/24/2008 - ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam (AFPN) -- "This is not a time when women should be patient. We are in a war and we need to fight it with all our ability and every weapon possible. Women pilots, in this particular case, are a weapon waiting to be used," said Eleanor Roosevelt, former first lady of the United States.

These words, spoken in 1942, were proven true when the Women Airforce Service Pilots were founded and played a pivotal role in World War II.

That statement again holds true today with many female Air Force pilots deploying around the world, proving to be an invaluable weapon in the war on terrorism.


See link for complete article

Women engineers inspire young people at Attleboro museum forum
ATTLEBORO -- Ten-year-old Savanna Nelson said she thinks computer animation is "cool" and something she wouldn’t mind exploring.

Nicole Choiniere, 11, a fellow student at Community School in North Attleboro, said she really liked hearing a woman’s story about her career as an engineer working on radar in connection with space and her friend, a female astronaut.

Katherine Pariseau, a freshman at Bishop Feehan, is pondering engineering as a career, possibly computer or mechanical engineering.

The young women were among roughly 40 people — about half of them girls — to attend the "Envision Engineering" forum last week at the Women At Work Museum on Country Street


See link for complete article.

AND FINALLY:

Air Force Portal Website BEIJING (Xinhua): China’s air force is to recruit 30 female pilot cadets this year. They will become part of a reserve force of women astronauts, according to an officer in charge of pilot recruitment. ...

I present only this paragraph, because each time I click on the link that is supposed to take me to this news page, I end up either at Google or Amazon. I can only assume, therefore, that the Chinese government doesn't want people accessing this webpage.

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