Skipper Sarah Kociuba Is One of 10 Female B-2 Pilots. She’s Flying the Bomber Over the Super Bowl.
Kociuba will captain Sunday’s authentic Super Bowl flyover.
Super Bowl Sunday will present numerous displays: Singers Eric Church and Jazmine Sullivan will belt out the National Anthem, The Weeknd is performing at halftime, and indeed, there will be a football match-up to watch in the middle!
Be that because it may, none of the occasions will be very, pretty much as memorable as the first-of-its-sort program show: A threesome of planes will hurdle through the air over Raymond James Stadium in Tampa as one, timing speeds more than 300 mph.
The mission will be lead by Captain Sarah Kociuba, one of just ten female B-2 pilots. (The B-2, a top-secret plane, is one of the world’s generally renowned and most remarkable planes, known for its capacity to avoid adversary protections.) She’ll get off from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri and connect up with two different planes over the Gulf of Mexico.
Then, at that point, the three planes will make a beeline for the field and play out a synchronized show. The move requires exact and hyper-controlled ability, yet if anybody can lead a particularly troublesome mission, it’s Kociuba. She’s flown more than 90 battle missions and at present trains, different pilots expecting to crew B-2 airplanes.
Here, Captain Kociuba shares more about the notable second, how she remains cool under tension, and the significance of getting more ladies behind the burden (ahem, a plane’s controlling wheel!). Marie Claire: Did you generally realize you needed to be an Air Force pilot? SK: I experienced childhood in the suburbia of Cleveland. My father was a regular citizen pilot, my uncles were nonmilitary personnel pilots, and the two sides of my family have a tactical foundation.
My folks adored going to aviation expos, and they took us to a ton when I was a child. When I was 11, we went to the Rose Bowl Parade—that is the point at which I saw my first B-2 aircraft. I thought it was the coolest thing. Indeed, even as a small child, I was captivated by flying.
Growing up, my folks pushed me to do anything I desired. I thought I needed to be a specialist. After my first semester at the University of Dayton, I got acquainted with ROTC, and they had an Air Force and an Army ROTC unit. I just chose, You know what, I will try this flying thing out. MC: The B-2 pilot crew is profoundly world-class. How could you wind up flying a particularly acclaimed airplane?
SK: I went to undergrad pilot preparing at Columbus Air Force Base. It required a year barely, and afterward, I acquired my wings, as we call it. I had a little more than 230 [flight] hours by then.