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 Air Force has finished modifying and testing the new VC-25B Bridge aircraft that will serve as a temporary Air Force One, the service announced May 1. All that’s left now is to finish painting the jet before it starts flying this summer.