The World’s First Flight Attendant

In 1930, Ellen Church was a newly licensed pilot who wanted to fly.  She went to Boeing Air Transport, the predecessor to United Airlines, and applied, even though she knew her chances of flying as a pilot were not good.  Still, the young woman from Iowa had some other interesting ideas.  Much to the credit of Manager Steve Stimpson of BAT, he listened to her thoughts and it completely changed the direction of the fledgling airline industry.

In the late 1920s and leading into the 1930s, the most predominant airplane used for transporting passengers was the Ford Tri-motor.  The crew consisted of the pilot and his co-pilot, who were both responsible for taking care of a dozen or so passengers in the cabin. 

Many of the passengers were fearful of flying.  The airlines typically also served a small lunch, usually consisting of a box lunch—that the co-pilot passed out to all the passengers as time allowed from his flying duties.  He would also spend time, as he passed out lunches, reassuring frightened passengers.

Although Stimpson would not hire Church as a pilot, he did listen to her ideas of using registered nurses in the cabin of the Tri-motors to attend to the passengers.  He had told her the airline was considering hiring men to work as stewards in the airplane.  She countered with the argument that a nurse, trained in dealing with the public as well as a modicum of psychology, would be the perfect individual to deal with the needs of scared and airsick passengers.

So on this day, in 1930, Ms. Ellen Church became the very first flight attendant in the world.

At first, many men scoffed at the idea of women working in airplanes.  They contended the aviation field, both in the cockpit and cabin, were the domain of masculine workers.  As a consequence, the requirements for female flight attendants were strict.

For consideration as flight attendants, nurses could not be married, had to be 5 foot 4 or less, and weigh not more than 115 pounds.  Additionally, they were usually responsible for other duties such as securing any loose passenger seats, lugging the baggage, help push and pull airplanes out of the hangar, and fuel airplanes.  For all of this, the starting salary was $125 a month.

Ellen Church was the leader of this first small band of female stewardesses (yes, in those days, that was the proper term; it was the male equivalent of steward).  She would work as a stewardess for only 18 short months; at that time, a car accident grounded her. 

She lived an active life.  In World War II, because of her experience in aviation and medicine, the Army commissioned her in the Army Nurse Corps and she was instrumental in perfecting techniques in the evacuation of wounded soldiers from combat theaters.  She won the Air Medal for her work in this field during the war.

Church was born in the small town of Cresco, IA and after the war, the town built a new airport.  To honor their aviation and wartime hero, they named the airport Ellen Church Field.

She maintained her active life, never slowing down for anyone or anything.  Indeed, in 1965 at the age of 63, she died from injuries caused by a horseback riding accident.

-30-

© 2011 J. Clark

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4 Responses to The World’s First Flight Attendant

  1. This would make a great submission to the magazine Reminisce. The editors look for such stories.

  2. Joe Clark says:

    Thanks, Carl, I will send them a query letter…

  3. And they multiplied at an alrming rate. The cockpit interphone has not stopped ringing since. It’s too cold, it’s too hot, when will we be there, is it going to be bumpy, would you make a PA and tell everyone to sit down, someone is in the lavatory and won’t come out, Cindy ran her panty hose and won’t stop crying, who made that awful landing? They keep us airworthy.

  4. Pingback: The World’s First Flight Attendant (via ) « Calgary Recreational and Ultralight Flying Club (CRUFC)

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