HAL From United States of America, joined Jan 2002, 2467 posts, RR: 53 Reply 1, posted (2 years 1 month 2 weeks 6 days 13 hours ago) and read 9153 times:
deltaflyertoo From United States of America, joined Nov 2000, 1589 posts, RR: 1 Reply 3, posted (2 years 1 month 2 weeks 6 days 12 hours ago) and read 9073 times:
Actually Bonnie Tiburzi was the first female pilot to be hired by an airline in 1973, it was with American Airlines. She actually wrote a book, an enjoyable read and addresses a lot of the issues at the time.
Scooter01 From Norway, joined Nov 2006, 1155 posts, RR: 8 Reply 4, posted (2 years 1 month 2 weeks 6 days 12 hours ago) and read 9037 times:
Turi Widerøe of Norway was hired by SAS in 1969. Earlier she had qualified as captain on the Norseman and Otter.
She started her SAS career with the CV-440 and went on to the Caravelle and the DC-9.
In 1969 she was awarded the Harmon Trophy
One of her uniforms is displayed at the National Air and Space Museum.
Scooter01
"We all have a girl and her name is nostalgia" - Hemingway
HAL From United States of America, joined Jan 2002, 2467 posts, RR: 53 Reply 8, posted (2 years 1 month 2 weeks 6 days 10 hours ago) and read 8858 times:
Quoting deltaflyertoo (Reply 3): Actually Bonnie Tiburzi was the first female pilot to be hired by an airline in 1973, it was with American Airlines. She actually wrote a book, an enjoyable read and addresses a lot of the issues at the time.
ditzyboy From Australia, joined Feb 2008, 680 posts, RR: 1 Reply 9, posted (2 years 1 month 2 weeks 6 days 10 hours ago) and read 8847 times:
In Australia, Deborah Lawrie was (to the best of my knowledge) the first female pilot for a commercial carrier. Her struggle against Ansett dates back to the mid to late 1970s. A notable feature of her struggle was a court order that Ansett put her on the payroll - which they did BUT did not allow her to fly. For an extended period of time she was paid as a pilot but not allowed to fly. One of Ansett's main arguments was a woman's menstrual cycle would affect her performance. Another argument was that passengers would be alarmed hearing a female voice over the PA coming from the flight deck.
I believe this pioneer in Aussie aviation is now a senior Airbus 330 captain at KLM.
RJAF From Jordan, joined Jan 2007, 301 posts, RR: 0 Reply 10, posted (2 years 1 month 2 weeks 6 days 10 hours ago) and read 8839 times:
Taghrid Akasheh-Steityeh, was the first Arab woman to become an airline pilot with Alia - Royal Jordanian Airline back in the late 60s. I flew with her when I was a kid in the 70s where she was a Captain on a Boeing 720 JY-ADT on a flight between Amman and Athens. Obviously she is very remarkable as she didn't exactly have it easy in an all male industry back then let alone the male dominated conservative Arab society.. Hats off to her.
cpd From Australia, joined Jun 2008, 4879 posts, RR: 44 Reply 12, posted (2 years 1 month 2 weeks 6 days 10 hours ago) and read 8804 times:
If we consider services like Air Ambulances, then Nancy-Bird Walton in 1935, hired to operate "Far West Children's Health Scheme". KLM also hired her for promotional work was one of the first - until joining the war effort.
Quoting ditzyboy (Reply 9): Another argument was that passengers would be alarmed hearing a female voice over the PA coming from the flight deck.
Back in those days, it was expected that the womens place was in the kitchen or the laundry, certainly not at the controls of an airliner. Sadly, they must have forgotten the likes of Nancy-Bird Walton and Jacqueline Auriole (the French aviatrix). Stuffy corporate cultures. Unfortunately, some of those cultures and ideas still exist in this day and age.
Quoting RJAF (Reply 10): Taghrid Akasheh-Steityeh, was the first Arab woman to become an airline pilot with Alia - Royal Jordanian Airline back in the late 60s. I flew with her when I was a kid in the 70s where she was a Captain on a Boeing 720 JY-ADT on a flight between Amman and Athens. Obviously she is very remarkable as she didn't exactly have it easy in an all male industry back then let alone the male dominated conservative Arab society.. Hats off to her.
Indeed, a remarkable achievement and hats off to her for turning the old status-quo on its head.
Severnaya From Russia, joined Jan 2009, 1390 posts, RR: 1 Reply 15, posted (2 years 1 month 2 weeks 6 days 8 hours ago) and read 8612 times:
First Aeroflot female pilots flew in 1938.
Quote: On September 25 the Russian female pilots Grizodubova V. S. and Osipenko P. D. with navigator Paskova М. М. made a non-stop flight from Moscow to the Far East.
longhauler From Canada, joined Mar 2004, 4281 posts, RR: 36 Reply 18, posted (2 years 1 month 2 weeks 6 days 5 hours ago) and read 8375 times:
Rosella Bjornson was the first female pilot of an airline jet transport aircraft in North America when she was hired by Transair in 1973. She flew as F28 F/O.
Transair merged into Pacific Western Airlines, which merged with CP Air to form Canadian Airlines. This of course, merged into Air Canada, and she retired from Air Canada at age 60. A full career!
Never gonna grow up, never gonna slow down .... Barefoot Blue Jean Night
… Marga von Etzdorf bereits in den zwanziger Jahren eine Junkers A50 namens „Kiek in die Welt“ steuerte, später flog sie als Pilotin bei Lufthansa die Junkers F13-Verkehrsflugzeuge.
So, Marga von Etzdorf was one of the earliest LH pilots back in the golden twenties...
RJAF From Jordan, joined Jan 2007, 301 posts, RR: 0 Reply 20, posted (2 years 1 month 2 weeks 6 days 3 hours ago) and read 8247 times:
Quoting 777way (Reply 13): I would guess that makes her the first in Muslim countries too.
777way....yes it could be. Not sure about Pakistan, Malaysia and Indonesia, Nigeria and other non-Arab muslim countries. It will be interesting to find out.
NuD38 From Germany, joined Jan 2011, 62 posts, RR: 0 Reply 22, posted (2 years 1 month 2 weeks 5 days 9 hours ago) and read 7888 times:
Not an airline pilot but Sabiha Gokcen from Turkey is the first female combat pilot who got her combat license on 30 August 1937 and joined her first operation in 1937 too.
Also for the records, first black military pilot in aviation history is Ahmet Ali (Arap Ahmet) from Ottoman Air force. (1916)
Pihero From France, joined Jan 2005, 3496 posts, RR: 72 Reply 24, posted (2 years 1 month 2 weeks 5 days 9 hours ago) and read 7860 times:
Reading this thread, it looks as if in the "western world", the first female airline pilot was Jacqueline Dubut who graduated from SFA in 1967 and joined Air Inter., first on Fokker F27, then the Caravelle, making her as well the first jet transport pilot.
Quoting NuD38 (Reply 22): Also for the records, first black military pilot in aviation history is Ahmet Ali (Arap Ahmet) from Ottoman Air force. (1916)
... and who was with Eugene Bullard the only black combat pilot of WW1.
The story of Eugene Bullard is one of the saddest in aviation, as he was the victim of racism, bigotry and prejudice.
The fact that... "He was buried with military honors by French officers in the French War Veterans' section of Flushing Cemetery in the New York City borough of Queens. is to the United States' shame.
Contrail designer
25 centrair: Japan's first female commercial airline captain was Ari Fuji in 2010! Ari Fuji Becomes Japan's First Female Captain Of A Commercial Airliner There are
26 otnysaslhr: Yvonne, having started out as a stewardess in 1951 and then became an ATC offficer, joined Morton Air Services as pilot in 1965. In 1969 she joined D
27 ScottishDavie: Yvonne Sintes may have been the first woman to carry the formal rank of captain in the UK but she certainly wasn't the UK's first female airline pilot
28 Viscount724: The original poster asked who was the first female airline pilot, not restricted to the USA. I flew on several CP 737-200 flights with her as captain
29 longhauler: It's funny you posted that picture of Rosie on the air-stairs of an F28, as that exact picture was on the cover of Canadian Aviation magazine, and I
30 Aircellist: I read with much interest Danielle Décuré's book. She was the first at Air France. Is she still there?
31 n9801f: This was big news all over US aviation when I was a kid. Later, I met Emily. She had hero status within Frontier - with both women and men - and she
32 CitationJet: Braniff Airlines' third pilot was a female, Bobby Burton, in 1928. She eventually married Virgil Turnbull, another Braniff pilot. Bobby was hired by B
33 28L28L: Working at PSP (TW) in 1983 I saw Emily and her fellow crew member walking out to their 737. I immediately recognized her and knew that I had a photo
34 kaitak: Here's a story from an Australian newspaper about the Philippines' first woman pilot, who started out with PAL and joined Cebu Pacific in 2003 and is
35 Viscount724: As a sidenote, three of Boeing's commercial programs -- the 737, 747 and 767 -- are now headed by women. The vice president and general manager of all
36 FlySSC: Jacqueline DUBUT was hired by Air Inter as a Nord 262 Copilot in May 1967. She is the first woman pilot in western Europe. Danielle Décuré retired
37 ScottishDavie: No she isn't. See my post at Reply 27.
38 atalanta89: Fiorenza de Bernardi was the first female pilot of an airline jet transport aircraft in Italy. (1967 Aeralpi) http://www.fiorenzadebernardi.it/PrimoLi
39 DocLightning: I remember once hearing an interview with one of BA's first female pilots. She said that once while she was F/O on a 742 flight somewhere, the Captai
40 BA174: That would be Lynn Barton who now has a command on the 744 and opened T5 she was BAs first female captain. The interview with her on the classics is
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