MINNESOTA, USA — Lt. Amanda Lee is making history as the first female pilot for the Blue Angels' demonstration team.
The aerial displays are an important recruitment tool for the Navy.
Lt. Lee is from Mounds View and will train all winter for her first event early next year. But she's not the only female pilot who has made history in Minnesota.
"If you have role models in front of you, if you have someone who looks like you, then you're like, of course I can be that," said Brenda Hanson.
Hanson is the vice-chair of Minnesota chapter of The Ninety-Nines, an international non-profit of women pilots.
"A lot of it is just getting together and being able to talk about aviation with other women," said Hanson. And that includes the ones who came before her, like Cora Fuller.
Fuller was the first woman in state history to get a pilot's license in 1931.
"She was 37, she wasn't a youngin', she got into it a little bit later," said Hanson.
There was also Elizabeth Strohfus from Faribault. She was a Women Airforce Service Pilot, otherwise known as a WASP.
"The women who helped train men, basically, in World War II on how to become fighter pilots," said Hanson.
But it was Rhea Woltman who Hanson got to meet before she passed away last year in St. Cloud.
"It was like seeing a legend in person and it's amazing," said Hanson.
Woltman flew competitively, was a commercial pilot and even passed all the astronaut tests, making her a member of the Mercury 13, but yet she never was able to step into space.
Still, her aviation accomplishments, among others, has helped to make a mark in Minnesota's sky.
"At some point, I want it to be where people don't even think about it; they don't think that's a woman, that's a man, it's a pilot," said Hanson. "Then that will say we've gone a long ways."
Hanson is so inspired by some of these women, she's now working on being a commercial pilot with a goal of being an instructor to teach the next generation.
Watch more local news:
Watch the latest local news from the Twin Cities in our YouTube playlist: