Heather Renee Penney (born September 18, 1974) is a defense policy expert at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies in Arlington, Virginia.

She is best known for her role as a USAF lieutenant who was one of two F-16 pilots who flew their unarmed planes in an attempt to ram and down[1] United Airlines Flight 93 before it reached Washington, D.C., during the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

[5] In 2009, she transferred to the 201st Airlift Squadron,[6] which provides short notice worldwide transportation for the executive branch, members of Congress, Department of Defense officials and high-ranking U.S. and foreign dignitaries.

As complex and diverse and discordant as it is, this thing, this idea called America, binds us together in citizenship and community and brotherhood.

[10] After leaving Lockheed in 2018, Penney joined the think tank Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies as a defense policy expert.