Saw it, liked it.
I actually watched wings a long time ago - it was a good film IMO. Kinda "the Right Stuff" set in an alternate universe.
As far as the whole rape thing goes - I got the feeling from it that the author was trying to show the flaws implicit in all people - that even the hero of the story, after going through this huge transformation from a lazy slacker to somebody who actually gives a damn about something, still has the monster inside of him that we all do - that he can still fall from grace.
The woman's apology might be a more cultural thing - but I took it to show that she was weak as well - trapped within the ideology of her faith, and unable to look to the new horizons that were being opened by the events unfolding around her, just as nobody else did.
"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche