Today (02/17/04), they showed a Russian Mig-21 Fighter Jet performing various aerobatic stunts, that was being piloted by “A LITTLE IN THE SIXTH GRADE”. I thought to myself that this can’t be real. If I followed it correctly, they stated that she had set a world record as the youngest person ever to break the sound barrier. This so-called “little girl” supposedly has flown and won over 140 mock air-to-air combat missions using lasers and computers in place of guns all by the time she was 8 years old, and has flown everything from a WWII B-17 Bomber, to a vintage British Spitfire, to the Goodyear Blimp :rolleyes:
Now I’, sitting here thinking…Umm O.K…What else has she done?
Her closing statement was that her final goal is to become an astronaut and become the first woman to walk on Mars!
Now…I’m just sitting here watching this thinking to myself…DO THESE FOOLS ACTUALLY EXPECT US HERE IN TV LAND TO BELIEVE THIS CRAP? Now… I may have been born at night, BUT NOT LAST NIGHT! I think its time that someone should really be done about the type of wild stories people are allowed to tell on National Television. I wonder who her father was…Commander McBragg from the old cartoon series?
Is this the same girl that was killed a couple of years ago when she tried to set a record for being the youngest pilot to cross the country, or something like that? Her plane was overweight at takeoff, and crashed almost immediately.
If it is the same girl, her daddy had a lot to do with the planes she had the opportunity to fly.
I know (and still remember) that one about the girl crashing in the plane here in the U.S. This one wa some girl in the USSR that was wearing a flightsuit with an American flag on the sleeve…Whatever it was, it was total crap so if you missed it, be thankful
I vaguely remember that episode from a while back because of the mock air combat. If I remember right, they showed external footage of her combat which I recognized from the promo video at the place where I flew. You can see their site at www.aircombatusa.com. If you look at the brochure they mention that they have had an 8 year old fly, though they don’t mention if she was the youngest. There are several places that I know of around the country that offer this same service and most don’t require you to have a pilots license.
As for the Russian Mig’s, go to www.flymig.com. This is likely the group that the girl you saw was flying with. They also don’t require a pilots license.
If you don’t want to go to Russia I know of a few places around where I live where you can fly a Russian built jet for a couple of hours with an instructor. I have done this in Lancaster Texas.
The Goodyear Blimp frequently takes up paying customers for joyflights when it isn’t being used at football games or other events.
And finally, many flight museums pride themselves on having fully operational, vintage aircraft and will take them flying with passengers.
Everything that that girl did is commercially available, provided you have the money to do it. It sounds to me like her Dad is an aviation buff with money to burn and has taken her along for the ride. I’m a pilot myself and I can tell you that flying a plane in flight is no big deal. With the activites she has done, there is always an instructor pilot to take off, land, and handle any emerencies that crop up. Also, all of these activities are pretty well known in aviation circles.
So my vote is that it’s very plausible that she has done those things, though they aren’t quite as impressive as they may have made it sound on the show
