All-female pilot team makes Super Bowl flyover history

Sunday’s Super Bowl was the first to feature an all-female team of pilots in the annual pregame flyover.

The historic first celebrates 50 years of women aviators in the U.S. Navy, the National Football League (NFL) wrote in a tweet.

Currently, about 15 percent of pilots in the U.S. Navy are female, notes CBS News.

The group of seven female aviators flew in a diamond formation over the State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, where the Kansas City Chiefs are facing off against the Philadelphia Eagles.

“We stand on the shoulders of giants. There’s a lot of people who make what we do possible…this is for them,” said Lt. Caitlin Perkowski, one of the women who participated in the flyover, according to a tweet from the Department of Defense’s outreach account.

Rep. Mikie Sherrill (D-N.J.), who is a former Navy helicopter pilot, praised the women for their accomplishment.

“I’m so proud of this team of women & look forward to watching them make history while celebrating 50 years of women flying in the Navy,” she wrote on Twitter.

The pregame ritual has been a tradition since it was first performed at Super Bowl II in 1968, when the Green Bay Packers defeated the Oakland Raiders, notes NBC Sports.