Wylie HS and Texas Tech graduate Arielle Ash leads historic all-female Super Bowl flyover

A crew of all-female U.S. Navy aviators made historical past Sunday evening earlier than the primary snap of the Super Bowl.

Seven ladies piloted the sport’s first-ever all-female flyover to commemorate 50 years of ladies pilots within the U.S. Navy.

Abilene native Arielle Ash led the diamond formation over State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., following the nationwide anthem. The formation included two F/A-18F Super Hornets, one F-35C Lightning II and one EA-18G Growler.

Ash, who graduated from Wylie High School, flew one of many Super Hornet fighter jets. The pilot, a 2012 Texas Tech graduate, is now a lieutenant in the Navy.

“I love flying jets with my friends,” Ash mentioned in a Navy assertion supplied to the Abilene Reporter News.

“I learned that hard work, initiative and determination will get you far. You can be the best person on a team, but the best leaders and team players are the ones who use their actions to speak for themselves.”

Kent Hance, former chancellor of Texas Tech, congratulated Ash on Twitter and identified that Texas Tech was represented on the sphere, as effectively. Patrick Mahomes, quarterback for the Kansas City Chiefs, performed for Tech earlier than becoming a member of the NFL.

“When they needed the lead pilot to fly over the Super Bowl site they didn’t get a Stanford or Yale graduate. Nope, they got a Texas Tech Red Raider,” he wrote. “Wylie girl makes good. TTU is proud of Arielle leading the air show while Mahomes leads the field.”

Women had been first admitted to U.S. Navy flight faculty in 1973. One 12 months later, six ladies graduated to earn their wings and grew to become generally known as “The First Six.”