The awesome form of flying of Beo, the first female F-35 demonstration pilot

@DefAviation ES 7·10·2023 · 21:03 0

In 1993, 30 years ago, today General Jeannie Marie Leavitt became the first female fighter pilot in the US Air Force.

HMDS and women pilots: an absurd controversy about the weight of the F-35 helmets
A comparison of the maneuverability of the most advanced US and Russian fighters

There are currently almost a thousand female pilots in the USAF, and about 100 of them are fighter pilots. One such woman is Major Kristin "Beo" Wolfe. At 34 years old, she she is the commander of the USAF F-35 Demonstration Team and the first female demonstration pilot with this type of fighter. For Beo, the aeronautical vocation runs in the family: her father is Colonel (ret.) Jon Wolfe, a former F-15C Eagle pilot who served in the US Air Force for 28 years. Kristin grew up in a world of airplanes , attending all the events at the air bases where her father worked.

Beo decided to follow in his father's footsteps. She initially thought about enlisting in the Navy, but ended up joining the USAF in 2011. After training on the T-6 and T-38C, she became a pilot (2014) and an instructor (2017 ) of the F-22 stealth fighter, whose extreme maneuverability is capable of testing the physical preparation of the best pilots.

In 2017, Beo transitioned to the F-35A, becoming an instructor pilot for this fighter, finally achieving her current role in 2020. Today is a very experienced pilot, with more than 1,000 flight hours. Her way of flying astonishes those who see her at the controls of her F-35A. You can see it here in a video posted by Elwyn R A few days ago, some images that were recorded at the Avation Nation 22 airshow at Nellis AFB, Nevada, in November 2022:

---

Main photo: U.S. Air National Guard. The then Captain Kristin "Beo" Wolfe flying her F-35A during a demonstration at the Oregon International Airshow in McMinnville, Oregon on August 20, 2022.