Jonesy, when I was reading your post I immediately thought of her- but could not reNember the character's name nor the actress (Jolene Blalok)...
Probably my all-time favorite was Susan Oliver from "The Cage" the original pilot for Star Trek. What is really interesting about the actress is that she was on an aircraft that almost crashed (The same day Buddy Holly died in an aircraft crash) but then stepped up and courageously took up flying and did some impressive flying as a pilot.
Sadly, she died at the age of 58 due to cancer.
