Royal Air Force Flt. Lt. Kirsty Stewart, the executive officer and one of the nine show pilots for the Red Arrows, the RAF demonstration team, flew backseat in an F-16D Fighting Falcon with the 162nd Fighter Wing, the Arizona Air National Guard unit at Tucson International Airport on 21 October 2011. Stewart is the first female Red Arrows pilot and is in her third and final season with the team. During her career, Stewart flew Tornado GR.4s operationally and deployed three times to support the coalition mission in Iraq. She also served as a Hawk instructor, which is where she met Maj. John Smith, the 162nd FW pilot who flew her on her orientation flight, during an exchange tour.
