Blue Angel Amanda Lee

Two remarkable women from Minnesota scored historical firsts in aviation. Amanda Lee grew up in Mounds View. In 2022 she became the first female to fly for the United States Navy's Demonstration Squadron, aka "The Blue Angels." Almost a century earlier, Florence Klingensmith from Moorhead was the first of her gender to fly in the National Air Races.

Besides being pilots, there's a lot of similarities between the two. Neither had aviation as their first career choice. Maintaining airplanes led both to their ultimate careers and they both were air show pilots.

As a teenager, Klingensmith loved f...