Women In Aviation

Even in aviation's early days, women pilots equaled male pilots in displays of ambition, skill and fortitude. Amelia Earhart and Jacqueline Cochran come readily to mind. In commercial aviation, however, women were for many years restricted to "women's jobs" as flight attendant, reservations agent, etc.

Since the early days of aviation, women have been active participants. One of the most famous figures in aviation history is Amelia Earhart. She won early acclaim by becoming the first woman to fly across the Atlantic in 1928, but her success was marred by the fact that two male pilots had actually been at the controls throughout the flight. Earhart compensated for this by achieving many record-breaking flights, and eventually she flew solo across the Atlantic. She was lost at sea while attempting to fly around the world in 1937.

Despite the accomplishments of Earhart and other courageous and skilled female pilots-notably those who ferried aircraft across the United States and to Europe during World War II-the aviation industry for many years tended to hire women for only a few positions such as flight attendant and reservations agent. While these jobs continue to attract many women (as well as men), women today are finding wider ranging opportunities in all segments of aviation.

On the page that follows, you'll hear from women who have successfully pursued a variety of interesting and rewarding aviation careers.

Amy M. Carmien is president and publisher of the magazine Women in Aviation (not connected with these pages).

"I began my aeronautical career with flight lessons at age 16. Following high school, I attended Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University at Daytona Beach, Florida, where I earned degrees in Aviation Maintenance Management, Aviation Business Administration, and Aviation Maintenance Technology. In addition to my pilot certificate, I have an airframe and powerplant (A&P) mechanic certificate."

"While at Embry-Riddle, I was awarded an Aviation Maintenance fellowship. Through the fellowship program, I assisted in the instruction of engine installation and troubleshooting. During this same time, I participated in the National Transportation Safety Board's student co-op program. Both of these programs allowed me to continue my education while gaining practical aviation experience.

"Throughout my education, I've been involved with writing and journalism courses. For me, journalism provides a positive balance with the more technical aspects of aviation."

"After working with the NTSB and as an A&P mechanic, I began researching the idea of an aviation publication devoted to the accomplishments of women in the field. That research led to the publication of Women in Aviation."

"The primary purpose of Women in Aviation is to acknowledge contributions from women in all sectors of aviation, regardless of their flight or non-flight status. Our subjects have included, in addition to pilots, an all-female skydiving team, a naval aviator, a balloon captain, and an A&P mechanic. The magazine also has a book review section, a student spotlight feature, and a flight anecdote column."

"In addition to my Women in Aviation activities, I serve as an advisor to the International Women's Air and Space Museum at Centerville, Ohio. I edit the museum's Quarterly newsletter and handle various other projects."

"Overall, I feel very fortunate to be able to combine my diverse interests in aviation. As a publisher, l am able to draw from my flying and mechanical experience as well as my accident investigation knowledge and business experience. I thoroughly enjoy meeting women in various aviation fields, and I look forward to continued growth in the future."

Mary G. Kelly is the manager of an airport in Oklahoma.

"As a mother and teacher, at the age of 34, I took a family vacation to Washington, D.C. That trip marked a turning point in my career and life."

"A full day in the National Air and Space Museum caught hold of me like nothing I'd ever experienced. I was, for the first time in my life, completely entranced by the spirit of flight. That summer thirteen years ago, I returned to my home in Louisville, Kentucky, looked up a flight school in the yellow pages, and made an appointment for my first flying lesson."

"From that first lesson, the world as I had known it began to change. I discovered not only a new perspective from which to view the world, but a learning process that would excite, challenge, and stretch my abilities. Within three years, I made the leap from classroom teacher to flight instructor."

"My family was a little bewildered by this new endeavor on my part. I was the first pilot in the family, although I'm hoping to encourage some of my nieces and nephews to learn to fly."

'My family would attest to the fact that I've always had a strong will and have been goal-oriented. My tenacity, however, seemed to increase as I pursued additional aviation ratings and certificates. When I passed the certified flight instructor checkride, I made another leap: I decided to leave Kentucky, which had been my home for more than fifteen years. Recently divorced, I was ready for a new beginning."

"My brother, a farmer in southwest Oklahoma, invited me to be a farm hand while I was deciding what to do next. I was put to work (I called it hard labor) getting the cotton crop to the gin. When the work was done, my brother introduced me to the aviation people in the area."

"In a relatively short time, I was hired as a copilot for the small commuter airlines flying round-trip daily to Oklahoma City. The owners of the local airline service also owned a Part 141 flight school. They wanted to sell it. I knew the airport was where I wanted to be, so I took another leap of faith and bought the school."

"The year that followed brought long hours, few days off, little money, but plenty of self satisfaction. Then the next opportunity arose: the position of airport manager became vacant. I pursued that job energetically and was hired!"

"With the help of an Amelia Earhart Scholarship from the International 99's, I obtained a degree in airport management from Western Oklahoma State College while I was on the job."

"New opportunities continued to present themselves. I met a wonderful man, Joe Cunningham, who helped me commemorate Amelia Earhart's 1932 flight across the North Atlantic-a trip that I had wanted to make since I started flying. Joe and l set a world and national record on that flight in a Cessna 172 RG."

"I followed Amelia's tracks in the United States, landing at Hatbox Field in Muskogee, Oklahoma, where she had visited friends. I managed Oklahoma's oldest and most historic airport for a period of time."

"A little more than a year after our transatlantic trip, Joe and I were married and set another world and national record, commemorating the 53rd anniversary of the Wiley Post/Will Rogers flight to Barrow, Alaska. The record course, which we flew in our own Cherokee 180, was from Rogers' birthplace to the crash site where lie and Post were killed."

"Presently, I am managing a resort grass strip on Lake Tenkiller in northeast Oklahoma. Joe and I publish a monthly aviation newsletter that is distributed to all the pilots in the state. He is a state aeronautics commissioner."

"From president of the Future Teachers of America when I was in high school to the President of the Oklahoma Airport Operators Association and President of the Associated Pilots of Oklahoma, I have made some big leaps, and I have lived the adventures that life offers in the world of flight."

"There were many moments in my aviation journey when I was afraid. I discovered that by pushing through that fear came courage. Among Amelia Earhart's compositions is a poem entitled Courage. The first line of that poem stays with me as I take each leap before me: 'Courage is the price which life exacts for granting peace.' The full meaning of that statement was understood when I finally spotted the distant hazy shore of Ireland after hours and hours of flying over the ocean. It is a joy to emulate a personal hero and, in the process, find that those qualities you admired are your own."

Kathryn D. Sullivan, Ph.D., is a NASA astronaut, Lt. Commander in the U.S. Naval Reserve, and adjunct professor of geology at Rice University, Houston, Texas.

"I come from a flying family. My father was a bomber pilot in World War II, and a couple of his brothers were pilots. He left the service under an arrangement that gave him a private pilot certificate. Ever since we were very little, my brother and I have had a keen interest in planes. We grew up with a lot of talk about airplanes around the house, since my father, a pilot and an engineer, worked on a variety of aerospace projects. When we were about 10, he activated his private pilot certificate so he could get to good fishing spots faster."

"My brother and I were thrilled to be able to go up in airplanes, and we rapidly learned a lot about flying because my father would explain everything to us. We became accustomed to handling the controls and to paying attention to the kinds of things that a pilot must do when conducting a flight. "

"The family plan was that each of us would get our pilot's license during the summer we finished high school. It didn't work out for me until years later, because I was involved with many activities and often lived in places that had awful weather or airports that were far away. It seemed to me that I needed a certain amount of time and money to devote to that effort in a consistent fashion, or I would just end up dabbling at it. Dabbling is not a very safe thing to do in flying. You have to make sure you've got the time and resources to practice and to keep your skills up to date. It's not something at which you want to become rusty."

"My academic interests didn't follow an aviation slant at all. By the second grade I was interested in scientific experiments. Around fifth or sixth grade I began to find that I had an interest in, and talent for, foreign languages. I also wanted to explore the world and learn about other countries."

"In eighth grade we had a guidance unit in which I found out for the first time that if you were smart and went to college, you could study abroad for one year. I decided that I was going to attend Stanford University and go to Europe to study in my third year of college. I looked at my grades and told myself to get going. My grades went from A's and B's to all A's and stayed there through high school. It was simply a matter of desire; I knew what I wanted and I knew I had to work for it.,'

"Primarily because of finances, I ended up attending the University of California at Santa Cruz in my home state. Fortunately for me, the University of California required science and humanities majors to take a few courses on the other side of the fence just so students didn't get too narrow-minded."

"I took courses in marine biology, oceanography, and geology. Geology was my major. I went abroad as a junior, studied for a year in Norway, and ended up a graduate student at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia.

"In my final year of graduate school, when I was down in the States visiting my parents at Christmas, my brother came up to me and said, 'Hey, NASA is hiring new astronauts and they want scientists. You've got a Ph.D., you're in geology, you' re a woman and they want women. You should try it."

"I found out that the role of mission specialist astronaut is essentially the chief scientist for a space research vessel. I had discovered through my years in marine research that this was the kind of thing I thrived on. To have the opportunity to exercise all those same qualities and make similar discoveries from a research vessel in space just couldn't be passed up. So along with about 6,500 other people, I applied in January 1977 for the job of mission specialist astronaut. Following an extensive evaluation and examination period, 120 potential candidates were interviewed for the job. Then, in January 1978, came the incredible phone call: 'About that job: are you still interested?' Needless to say, I accepted."

"My interest in exploration and my interdisciplinary background are probably two of the major reasons why I was selected for NASA's astronaut program. Looking at your papers and transcripts, the selection committee

can tell if you are basically an intelligent person with the right education or professional background. The next question is whether your inclinations and temperament are suited to the kinds of activities you're asked to do as an astronaut.

"The astronauts job is highly interdisciplinary. We're really the people who sit at the ends of many different funnels that various engineers in the thousands are working on. We must make sure that everything fits together properly and works together properly. The human factors engineering, integration and development of procedures, and writing of the checklists are the kinds of things that astronauts get involved in while preparing for flights on the space shuttle. Those things demand that you keep a very broad view."

"The person you owe something to is yourself. The person who's going to benefit or be harmed by your doing a good or bad job is you. That's true in every class you take or every job that you do, whether it seems small or big."

"It's that commitment to make the most of your talents that gives you the most return. It's like putting money in a bank account that then allows you to buy back vast amounts of knowledge, entertainment, joy, pleasure and excitement, by being able to go off in the world and make use of these things in your day-to-day life."

"Challenge yourself! Do things that stretch your abilities. You will get a lot back."

Dr. Peggy Baty, Associate Vice President and Dean at Parks College of St. Louis University, in Cahokia, Illinois.

"I grew up in Southern California, but decided to attend a small college in Tennessee to major in education. It wasn't until my senior year in college that! took my first airplane ride in a 1946 Ercoupe, a two-seat, low-wing airplane with a canopy top. It was love at first flight. That winter I began taking flying lessons in the Ercoupe at the Collegedale Airport outside of Chattanooga, Tennessee."

"When I told my family of my intention to enter the world of aviation, my mother sent me a clipping from the Chicago Tribune describing the benefits available to flight attendants. I wrote back that! had no intention of being in the back of the airplane when I could be the captain." "With approximately twelve hours of flying under my belt, I began to take aerobatic instruction from Bill Kershner, the well-known aviation author and aerobatic instructor, in Sewanee, Tennessee. Learning to do spins, rolls, loops, Cuban 8s, snap rolls on top of loops, hammerheads, and other aerobatic maneuvers was truly a high point.

"It was Bill Kershner who first told me about the opportunities for earning a college degree in aviation and of the aviation department at Middle Tennessee State University. So that fall I enrolled in the Aviation Administration program at MTSU, teaching ground school classes both in Tennessee and Alabama. One such class met in a little airport in Stevenson, Alabama."

"I was back in the airport manager's office discussing final de tails for space allocations and supplies as the students were arriving. When I walked out to the classroom and placed my notes on the podium, I overhead one of the students say, 'You mean we have a lady teaching us how to fly?' It was then that I realized that the entire class was composed of men."

"I graduated from Middle Tennessee State University with a BA in Aviation Administration in May 1980. On graduation day the department chair asked me if I had plans to work on a Masters degree and indicated the possibility of a partial scholarship if I did so. That summer I enrolled in the Aerospace Education Masters program at MTSU."

"One of the requirements for this particular degree program was a course designed not so much for aviation students as it was for school teachers. I was really impressed with the motivating power of this course on these teachers' lives and their enthusiasm to take aviation back to their own classrooms and use it with their students. This one course probably had the most influence on my life regarding my desire to promote aviation education and to encourage others to support it as well."

"I completed the Masters degree in December of 1980 with the determination to combine my two career interests: aviation and education. Over the next several months, I went on to attain instrument, commercial, and flight instructor certificates and ratings in single and multi-engine airplanes. My husband Bruce, and l began an aviation consulting business and flight school in Chattanooga."

"As a fight instructor I encountered a number of interesting responses. For example, upon flying into an airport in Georgia with a female flight student, a gentleman in the fixed base operation asked, 'Where's the pilot?' And when flying with a male student on a cross-country flight, upon landing and securing the plane, a lineman would inevitably walk up to the student and ask if he needed any fuel, etc. They assumed that he was pilot in command."

"I wanted to become more involved with aviation education, particularly at the collegiate level, so I went back to school. This time I enrolled at the University of Tennessee in their Educational Administration and Supervision doctoral program in the summer of 1982. I graduated in August 1985."

"Later that month I was hired as Chairman of the Aviation Administration Department at Georgia State University in Atlanta. I proceeded to initiate a flight simulator training pro gram, an air traffic control course, a flight training arrangement with the Georgia Tech flying club, non-credit ground school courses, Flight Instructor Refresher Clinics, and 'Aviation Days in Georgia,' a program that brought the aviation community in Atlanta together."

"One year later I moved to Daytona Beach, Florida, to accept a position in the Aeronautical Science Department at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. I initiated a teacher workshop program and a host of other projects, and was promoted to Associate Dean of Aca demics."

"I am currently Chief Administrator at Parks College of St. Louis University."

"You are limited only by your dreams and your willingness to see them through."

Dr. Emily R. Morey-Holton is a research scientist at the NASA-Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California.

"I've always been impressed by individuals who focus on a particular career goal early in life and pursue and achieve that goal. Others, like myself, find exciting but unanticipated careers by pure luck. I began my education in Parkersburg, West Virginia. Parkersburg High School was academically outstanding and ahead of its time in the breadth of courses offered. When I graduated from high school, I was quite sure that twelve years of primary and secondary education were sufficient, and I was not anxious to continue my schooling. Fortunately, my parents disagreed and packed me off to West Virginia University where my initial major was undecided."

"I have also been extremely fortunate to have had very supportive family members, friends, mentors, collaborators, and co-workers. In fact, my college advisor, Dr. Peter Popovich, suggested that I consider spending a year at Harvard Medical School as a technician when I finished college and still was not sure what I wanted to do. He also told me that the Pharmacology Department at the new medical school at West Virginia University had some fellowships available for graduate study."

"After a year in Boston, I returned to WVU and to the Pharmacology Department. The department instilled a love of teaching and planted the seeds for a research career, but those seeds did not germinate for several years. Upon completion of my degrees, I taught and did research at other medical schools."

"In the late sixties, I moved to the Eastern Shore of Maryland. I quickly learned that a person could actually be overeducated for jobs in certain areas of the country and that those areas did not know or care about the National Institutes of Health and grants-a most humbling experience. One day, in sheer desperation, I jumped into the car and drove to a small NASA launch facility on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. I went straight to the Wallops Station personnel office and said, 'Please hire me!' and to my amazement, several weeks later they did."

"During one of my first meetings with Dr. Bob Krieger, director of the facility, he said, 'There's space, now do something significant.' A big task for a small lady. I spent the next five years as the only Life Scientist on the base, where I learned to talk to engineers and launch personnel. Their language is, indeed, different. But I was very impressed by their dedication, hard work, and adherence to launch and planning schedules. Working with them in designing unmanned biological satellites, I developed a much greater appreciation for the type of biological data that engineers need, and I began to understand the complexity of satellite design."

"When the research focus of the Station began to change, I requested a transfer to NASA's primary facility for basic life sciences research at Ames Research Center in California. The management at Wallops agreed to the transfer, gave me a promotion, and sent me to California, where I am now happily employed."

"I am very fortunate to have ended up with a job that is exciting, demanding, and very rewarding, and where I can use both my formal science and informal engineering background."

Jeana Yeager was co-pilot on the Voyager, the first aircraft to fly around the world non-stop.

"Once upon a time...I didn't actually grow up with aviation, like most people. It wasn't until I was about 26. I've always been fascinated with helicopters, and I had a crazy desire to fly them. I went down to school in Santa Rosa, California, and found a company that had helicopters. They convinced me I should get the fixed-wing rating first. For whatever reason it's better to have the helicopter rating as an add-on, instead of getting the fixed-wing rating as an add-on. So anyway, I got my rating in fixed wing, but the company was on financial hard times and I didn't quite make it to the rotor wing."

"I have experience in all types of drafting - illustrations, mechanical, geophysical, geological, some architectural, very little electrical, some with civil. I have worked for companies involved in off-shore drilling, where I did a lot of the seismic maps, labeling, and seismic readings. Later, I went to work for a man named Bob Truax, on a back yard program to put a person into space. It was called Project Private Enterprise. This turned into a very good experience. He was good to let me just go out into the shop and play, and to answer my silly questions."

"Bob tried to keep me in the office with aeronautical drafting, but I kept drifting off into the shop, and ended up doing office work as well, so! became the person who was doing a little bit of everything. If something needed to be done I usually got volunteered. It was a wonderful friendship with him and all the people who were there-a very good all-around work experience. I learned a lot of good basics that served me for the Voyager program.

"Time and circumstances got me into flying experimental aircraft. I met Dick Rutan in 1980, and we started friendly competition flying and setting records. I hold five world records (in speed and distance), and Dick has six world records. Then we went on to the Voyager, which seemed a nice evolution to the next records."

"Once Dick and I had decided to do the Voyager, we more or less rolled up our sleeves, and not knowing a lot about anything, set up a corporation.. .learning how to operate a corporation, putting together an airplane without plans, making it up as we went, figuring out how to raise funds, how to make things happen. Everything was a learning step."

"The Voyager project was a six-year program. Then came the around-the-world flight on December 1986. Dick and! more than doubled the world record when we flew non-stop and non-refueled around the world-the first time ever that it was done. The farthest anyone had ever traveled was only halfway around the world."

"It was exciting watching it all come together, exploring your own self and finding out, 'yeah, I can do this; I'm capable.' It was a fun discovery period."

"All experiences of your life are training and developing for your next level of expertise. I would say that Voyager is a training situation for my next level. I have no idea what the next level is going to be, but! know I'll be capable of whatever I decide to do."

"The Voyager was one of those rare opportunities that hardly ever come along in any body's lifetime. When you have that opportunity, it's hard to say no. I certainly couldn't. There are very few things that are that unique and that different. It was something I had to be a part of"