Michelle 'Mace' Curran

But as I got to the point where I applied to be a Thunderbird pilot, I saw it as a strength because this isn't a combat squadron. It's not the same mission set as the other units. The mission of the Thunderbirds is to recruit, obviously, but also to inspire people, inspire people that might never join the military, just inspire people in general.

And to step into that role, there hadn't been another female pilot on the team for five years at that point. I was the fourth one to come on to fly in the demo in the teams. It'll be 70 years since the team's been around next year. So the first one was in 2005 and there had been a five-year gap. And so I saw my gender in that role.

And to step into that role, there hadn't been another female pilot on the team for five years at that point. I was the fourth one to come on to fly in the demo in the teams. It'll be 70 years since the team's been around next year. So the first one was in 2005 and there had been a five-year gap. And so I saw my gender in that role.

And to step into that role, there hadn't been another female pilot on the team for five years at that point. I was the fourth one to come on to fly in the demo in the teams. It'll be 70 years since the team's been around next year. So the first one was in 2005 and there had been a five-year gap. And so I saw my gender in that role.

And when your mission is to inspire and every single demo pilot is a white male, Being a woman is a strength. And there were no lowered standards. My flying had to be as good as everyone else's because it's very small margins for air and with high repercussions, obviously. But the other part of the mission, I could reach people that they could never reach. And I became very aware of that.

And when your mission is to inspire and every single demo pilot is a white male, Being a woman is a strength. And there were no lowered standards. My flying had to be as good as everyone else's because it's very small margins for air and with high repercussions, obviously. But the other part of the mission, I could reach people that they could never reach. And I became very aware of that.

And when your mission is to inspire and every single demo pilot is a white male, Being a woman is a strength. And there were no lowered standards. My flying had to be as good as everyone else's because it's very small margins for air and with high repercussions, obviously. But the other part of the mission, I could reach people that they could never reach. And I became very aware of that.

And I tried to use that as much as possible to reach as many people as I could in that three years that I was in that role.

And I tried to use that as much as possible to reach as many people as I could in that three years that I was in that role.

And I tried to use that as much as possible to reach as many people as I could in that three years that I was in that role.

For people who don't understand, haven't been to one of your shows, because I'm visualizing, you know, the planes stacked on top of each other and one's upside down. But for people who haven't seen it, can you just explain a little bit about what really goes on, what you guys were doing?

For people who don't understand, haven't been to one of your shows, because I'm visualizing, you know, the planes stacked on top of each other and one's upside down. But for people who haven't seen it, can you just explain a little bit about what really goes on, what you guys were doing?

For people who don't understand, haven't been to one of your shows, because I'm visualizing, you know, the planes stacked on top of each other and one's upside down. But for people who haven't seen it, can you just explain a little bit about what really goes on, what you guys were doing?

Yeah. So I'll give you kind of the broad description if no one or for people that haven't seen the Thunderbirds. So six aircraft, F-16s, fighter aircrafts. They've probably seen Top Gun, so kind of similar. That's the F-18, but same idea. We would fly in formation, all six of us, and we would be anywhere from 18 inches to three feet apart.

Yeah. So I'll give you kind of the broad description if no one or for people that haven't seen the Thunderbirds. So six aircraft, F-16s, fighter aircrafts. They've probably seen Top Gun, so kind of similar. That's the F-18, but same idea. We would fly in formation, all six of us, and we would be anywhere from 18 inches to three feet apart.

Yeah. So I'll give you kind of the broad description if no one or for people that haven't seen the Thunderbirds. So six aircraft, F-16s, fighter aircrafts. They've probably seen Top Gun, so kind of similar. That's the F-18, but same idea. We would fly in formation, all six of us, and we would be anywhere from 18 inches to three feet apart.

During that, we do rolls, loops, so we're going fully upside down. We're doing all kinds of precise maneuvering very close together. And those are at speeds of over five, well, up to 500 miles an hour in formation, over 400 miles an hour consistently. Okay. Then you have the solos, which is the role that I played. So I was the lead solo, number five.

During that, we do rolls, loops, so we're going fully upside down. We're doing all kinds of precise maneuvering very close together. And those are at speeds of over five, well, up to 500 miles an hour in formation, over 400 miles an hour consistently. Okay. Then you have the solos, which is the role that I played. So I was the lead solo, number five.

During that, we do rolls, loops, so we're going fully upside down. We're doing all kinds of precise maneuvering very close together. And those are at speeds of over five, well, up to 500 miles an hour in formation, over 400 miles an hour consistently. Okay. Then you have the solos, which is the role that I played. So I was the lead solo, number five.

And number five and number six, the solos will split off from the other four aircraft. And we do the maneuver you described where one person's upside down, one person's right side up. And there's some trickery and angles that are being played with there to make it look like the jets are touching when they obviously aren't. but still very close together.