The Air Force’s first female Thunderbird Aerial Demonstration Team pilot, Maj. Nicole Malachowski, has been inducted into the Women in Aviation International’s Pioneer Hall of Fame. Malachowski attended the association’s 19th annual conference last week in San Diego, where she joined Nancy Love, Geraldine Mock, Margaret Ringenberg, and the Women’s Air Transport Auxiliary as new members of the hall of fame. Malachowski has donated one of her Thunderbird show flight suits to the San Diego Air & Space Museum, the site of the conference. (AFPN report by SSgt. Jeremy Larlee) And, speaking of the T-Birds, find their 2008 season schedule here.
The use of a military counter-drone laser on the southwest border this week—which prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to abruptly close the airspace over El Paso, Texas—will be a “case study” on the complex web of authorities needed to employ such weapons near civilian areas and the consequences of agencies…
