A young woman named Lauren Olme has made history as one the first ever pregnant pilot to fly a supersonic plane in te United States Airrforce.
Major Lauren, 77th Weapons Squadron assistant director of operations at he United State Airforce achieved an outstanding and rare feat of flying while pregnant according to the US Air Force press release.
She stated that she gained her passion for flying by watching her father fly as a pilot in the Air Force adding that becoming a pilot is the fulfilment of her childhood dream.
“My dad flew F-15Cs, so I instantly fell in love with flying and the Air Force culture at a pretty young age. There was never really a time that I officially decided I wanted to join the Air Force, it was just something I always wanted to do,” she said.
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Luren said she met her husband, Mark Olme at the United States Air Force Academy 10 years ago and they got married seven months after their graduation.
She mentioned that she and her husband have been deployed all around the world together training to fly for the Air Force and are currently flying the supersonic B-1 bombers.
“We were navigating being newlyweds while both going through Undergraduate Pilot Training. Both of our flight commanders were B-1 pilots, and the bomber community combined a lot of aspects that we both wanted out of flying. We were extremely fortunate to both get assigned the B-1 out of UPT and haven’t regretted it for a second!” she said.
In 2022, Lauren shared that she discovered she was pregnant after trying for many years. Even though she was expecting a baby, she still wanted to fly. However, in the last year, a new Air Force rule was introduced.
This rule allows aircrew members to choose to fly while pregnant without needing special permission in the second trimester, as long as their pregnancy is normal and they meet all safety requirements which was not the norm before.
”It’s a very personal decision that Mark and I made together because there are risks involved in flying the B-1 while pregnant but after conferring with Air Force and civilian medical doctors, we felt comfortable with me flying for a few weeks,” she said.
Lauren made history as one of the first pregnant pilots to fly an ejection seat plane and to hit supersonic speeds during one flight.
“I looked over and I saw Mark in the other aircraft and knew that flying with my husband and carrying, hopefully, the next generation bomber pilot while flying supersonic was, it was quite the memory,” she said.
Lauren’s baby also becomes one of the first babies in the Department of Defense to clock 9.2 hours in a supersonic aircraft. She stated that she was honored to have become one of the first women to experience this new policy.
“I’m honored to be one of the first to fly in an ejection seat aircraft while pregnant, I wouldn’t have been able to do it if women in the Air Force didn’t advocate for these types of policy changes, so to live out a policy change that other women worked so hard to enact is truly an honor,” she said.
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