Flight Lieutenant Kirsty Moore, 31, will fly as a member of the prestigious RAF display team from 2010 until 2012.

The RAF said that until recently no female fast-jet pilot had advanced far enough in their career to join the display team based at RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire.

Flt/Lt Ben Plank, 30, who is based at Cottesmore in Leicestershire, will also be joining the display team from next year. Both he and Flt/Lt Moore, will start training with the Red Arrows in September.

Some 30 fast-jet pilots apply to the Red Arrows every year but only the very best are successful.

Flight Lieutenant Moore, who is originally from Lincolnshire, is not the first woman to apply for a place, although she was the first to make the short list.

Successful applicants must have scored better than average marks in their flying career, have flown for a minimum of 1,500 hours and have completed at least one front line tour.

Flt/Lt Moore could fly, at the London Olympics.

The Top Gun who joined the RAF in 1998 is originally from Lincolnshire, and is currently flying with a Tornado squadron based in Norfolk.