Captain Karen Kahn started flying at 19 and has been a pilot for Continental for more than 30 years. She has a great book that can help you decide if an airline career is for you and what you need to do to get there. Check out “Flight Guide for Success -- Tips and Tactics for the Aspiring Airline Pilot.”
From learning to fly at 16, Loren Bentley learned to take risks, have confidence, and make decisions quickly. Now, she’s a graduate student in bioengineering.
Captain Kristen Mansel soloed at 16. Today she pilots for an aviation company.
While learning to fly
multi-engine airplanes, Karrie
Shank, 20, is a college
student and a flight instructor. She teaches guys older than she is.
Jen
Harwood-Higgs started
flying at age 10 and only two decades later, she’s jetting
around in a Gulfstream. Fun!
When Fran
Bera was 16,
she had to
confess to her parents that she had been skipping school to learn to
fly. She had to convince them to allow her to solo. It was 1941. She
has been flying ever since. With no trouble ever getting a job, she
made her living flying for her entire career.
Jerrie
Cobb learned to fly
a
bi-wing plane at age 12. By 16, she was barnstorming with a circus, and
at 18, she was teaching others to fly. Besides setting four new world
aviation records for speed, distance and absolute altitude, she was
nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her work in the Amazon.
In 1991, Patty
Wagstaff
became the first woman in the history of the U.S. to capture the
National Aerobatic Championship.
And then there’s the pioneering women of aviation:
Bessie Coleman was the first African American to earn an international pilot’s license and the first black woman to fly an airplane. In 1921, she had to go to France to find an instructor willing to teach a black woman, but her drive to “amount to something” kept her going. She returned a celebrity called Queen Bess, breaking down prejudices.
And of course, we all know Amelia
Earhart, a name synonymous
with Woman Pilot. She was the
1st woman to cross the Atlantic Ocean solo, in 1932.
Evelyn
Sharp had an
airfield named after her because she was the youngest female commercial
pilot in the nation at age 18.
The Marine Corps had to rethink their motto “We’re looking for a few good men” when Sara Deal came along. She became the first black woman Marine Corps pilot in 1996. The Marines only let women into the program a few years ago. Those who qualify receive $1.5 million of flight training fully paid for by the Marine Corps. What a deal. You go, Captain Sara!
Major Nicole Malachowski pursued her goal to be a U.S. Air Force fighter pilot. She soloed at 16 and she was the first female Thunderbird F-16 pilot!
Featured in the documentary
“Speed
and Angels,” Meagan
shares her journey becoming a TomCat F-14 pilot. She loves flying
fighter jets faster than the speed of sound, often at 2,485 km per
hour. She says, “If you have the motivation, the drive to do
it,
you can. There are things you can do to overcome obstacles. I come from
a family with no flying or military experience. You can overcome
anything holding you back.”
And who’s the youngest female pilot? Victoria
Van Meter was the youngest
female ever to fly across the
U.S. when she piloted a single-engine Cessna 172.
9-year-old Isilay Davaz,
from Turkey, proves you’re never too young to fly.
She needs a boost to see over the nose of the airplane, but she loves
the power of the skies.
So,
what are you waiting for?
Check out How
to Become a Pilot.