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Rihanna is not the only one that will add a feminine touch to the Super Bowl on Sunday, February 12. During the sporting event, a group of women will make history when they fly over the Phoenix’s State Farm Stadium ahead of the game between the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs.
The all-female team, led by four pilots, will wow viewers with a diamond formation to honor 50 years of women flying in the U.S. Navy.
“It was surreal,” one of the four pilots, Navy Lt. Catie Perkowski, told “Good Morning America,” referring to the moment she learned she was selected as a pilot for the flyover. “I didn’t believe it,” Navy Lt. Suzelle Thomas added.
According to CBS News, Thomas will be piloting an F-35C, the newest aircraft in the Navy. She is also the first qualified woman to fly the plane. This historic moment comes after her experience allowed her first to avoid training on other jets.
Perkowski will be completing Sunday’s formation at around 345 miles per hour. Although she said the maneuver is “any pilot’s dream,” her dad wants a phone call while she is at the arena. “My dad did ask me to call him from the sideline on the Super Bowl,” she said. “I’ll do my best.”
“But for me, as a football fan, when I got the call to do the Super Bowl flyover, it’s almost like a dream initially for someone who loves the NFL,” she reveals.
Perkowski and Thomas will be flying with two other pilots. The four plan to tribute the women who came before them, including Capt. Rosemary Mariner, the Navy’s first female jet pilot who, died in 2019 at the age of 65.
“The wisdom that she had to share was really amazing,” Perkowski said of Mariner. “To have the ability to represent people like her that came before us and made everything that we do possible is truly an honor.”
“There are also men and women that we serve with every day. They work on my jet. They’re the ones that make sure that I am able to fly,” Perkowski said. “So to be able to carry them with us, it’s really exciting.”