First woman pilot joins Britain's Red Arrows

Britain's renowned Red Arrows aerobatic display team presented its first woman pilot on Thursday, ending a high-altitude all-male bastion.

Flight Lieutenant Kirsty Moore, 31, will perform with the Royal Air Force display team from next year until 2012 after becoming the first female fast-jet pilot to advance far enough in their flying career to qualify.

Moore said: "It's an awesome job. To be told I had been selected was one of the best days of my life. It was incredible.

"The girl thing is an aside for me because I have been a female all my life and I've been a pilot since joining the RAF," she said before taking to the skies above the Red Arrows' RAF Scampton base in Lincolnshire, eastern England.

She added: "I know for outsiders it is a big thing but for me it is about timing and someone was always going to be the first woman to join the Red Arrows. I'm lucky enough it's happened to me and I'm very proud."

The Red Arrows' jets are a firm fixture at national events such as Queen Elizabeth II's birthday and at air shows at home and abroad, performing heart-stopping loops and turns in tight formation.

Since their creation in 1965, they have given over 4,200 displays in 53 countries.

Moore, who was picked from up to 40 applicants, credited her father Robbie Stewart, a retired RAF navigator, with inspiring her to join up after studying for a Masters in Aeronautical Engineering at Imperial College, London.

"Hopefully in a small way, by me being a Red Arrows pilot, some girls might think that this is something they could be part of and they should go for it," she said.