THIS IS YOUR CAPTAIN SPEAKING

by Guy Miller, Vice Chair Emeritus, Chennault Aviation and Military Museum

In the era of my birth the roles of women in the workforce were very limited and very defined.  Most working women were either in “assistance” roles such as secretary, waitress or stewardess or “nurturing” roles such as nurse or teacher.  Today no one gives it any thought when seeing a woman in a workplace role that was once dominated by men. What is less obvious to many who are younger than I am is some woman had to be the first to prove her ability to “do a man’s job” and even then it was often a journey of filling a hierarchy of gradually increasing roles to get to the parity we see today.

In aviation, there had to be women who were recognized as excellent private pilots before women could be considered for commercial pilot jobs.  And before there could be women fighter pilots and pilot astronauts there needed to be women pilots who excelled in civilian aviation roles.

Helen Richey was a the first woman to be hired as a pilot by a commercial airline in the United States.  Richey was 20 when she learned how to fly a plane.  She then demonstrated her flying skills by setting endurance and light plane altitude records.  Recognizing her capabilities, Central Airlines hired Richey as a co-pilot in 1934.  Richey’s first passenger flight was on December 31.  She flew a Ford Trimotor from Washington DC to Detroit.  Richey’s commercial aviation career was cut short when the then all-male pilots union eventually forced her out of her job.

Undeterred, Richey went on to become the first woman air mail pilots and one of the first female flight instructors.  She continued to set further flying records and to perform at air shows.  She even teamed with Amelia Earhart for a transcontinental air race in 1936.  When the demands of World War II allowed women to serve as ferry pilots, Richey first joined the British Air Transport Auxiliary.  She  later resigned, obtained her Army Air Force wings in 1943 and became a member of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs).

Richey died in her New York City apartment on January 7, 1947 from a medicine overdose.  She had been under the care of a physician for depression and her death was ruled a suicide.

In 1969, Turi Widerøe became the first female commercial airline pilot for a major airline in the Western world.  Widerøe had earned her private pilot’s license in 1962 and her commercial license in 1965.  In 1968, Widerøe enrolled in Scandinavian Airlines System’s flight academy.  Upon graduating, she certified as a co-pilot on the Convair 440 Metropolitan.

The first woman captain of a US airline was also the first woman pilot to be hired by a US airline since Helen Richey in 1934.  Emily Howell Warner obtained her private pilot license in 1958 and quickly landed a job as a flying traffic reporter.  Warner eventually joined the Clinton Aviation Company and worked as a flight instructor before flying as a first officer on Convair 580s and de Havilland Twin Otters.  Later promoted to flight school manager and chief pilot, Warner became the first woman to be appointed as an FAA Pilot Examiner.

In 1968, there were no women pilots flying for any major commercial airline.  Undaunted, Warner began applying for pilot positions at Frontier Airlines, Continental Airlines and United Airlines.  With  persistence she was finally hired by Frontier on January 29th, 1973.

On February 6, Warner’s first flight assignment was as second officer on a Frontier 737. Within six months, she was promoted to first officer.  In 1974, Warner became the first woman to join the Air Line Pilots Association.  In 1976, Frontier promoted her again and she became the first woman captain of a US airline.

Warner continued to fly with Frontier and its acquiring airlines People Express and Continental Airlines until 1986.  Leaving Continental, she took a job as captain of a Boeing 727 for United Parcel Service.  Warner became a Federal Aviation Administration examiner and Aircrew Program Manager in 1990.

Emily Howell Warner passed from complications of a fall and Alzheimer’s in 2020.  Her pilot’s uniform is on display at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.

Although she was hired a few months after Emily Howell Warner, Bonnie Tiburzi was actually the first American woman to fly for a major US airline.  By her early twenties, Tiburzi had been a flight instructor and a charter pilot.  She was only 24 when she was hired by American Airlines in 1973.  Tiburzi flew for 26 years before retiring.

The first African American woman captain in passenger aviation was Melissa Ward.  Ward’s mother was the first African American woman to obtain a University of Chicago medical school degree.  According to Ward, “When you see a mom can accomplish something like that, you think you can do anything.”  With this determination, Ward joined the Air Force ROTC while in college then eventually served as a instructor pilot for the C-141 Starlifter heavy transport aircraft. Leaving the Air Force, Ward joined United Airlines in November 1992.  Initially a second officer on DC-10s, she was promoted through the ranks to captain.  

The next time you see a woman pilot walking through an airport or sitting in the cockpit of the aircraft you just boarded, give some thought to what she represents.  She is there because of the hard work and determination of many women who came before her.