In 1930, Ellen Church was a newly licensed pilot who wanted to fly.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Still, the young woman from Iowa had some other interesting ideas.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
In the late 1920s and leading into the 1930s, the most predominant airplane used for transporting passengers was the Ford Tri-motor.\u00a0 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Many of the passengers were fearful of flying.\u00a0 The airlines typically also served a small lunch, usually consisting of a box lunch\u2014that the co-pilot passed out to all the passengers as time allowed from his flying duties.\u00a0 He would also spend time, as he passed out lunches, reassuring frightened passengers.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 He had told her the airline was considering hiring men to work as stewards in the airplane.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
So on this day, in 1930, Ms. Ellen Church became the very first flight attendant in the world.<\/p>\n
At first, many men scoffed at the idea of women working in airplanes.\u00a0 They contended the aviation field, both in the cockpit and cabin, were the domain of masculine workers.\u00a0 As a consequence, the requirements for female flight attendants were strict.<\/p>\n
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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 For all of this, the starting salary was $125 a month.<\/p>\n
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<\/em>).\u00a0 She would work as a stewardess for only 18 short months; at that time, a car accident grounded her.\u00a0<\/p>\n She lived an active life.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 She won the Air Medal for her work in this field during the war.<\/p>\n Church was born in the small town of Cresco, IA and after the war, the town built a new airport.\u00a0 To honor their aviation and wartime hero, they named the airport Ellen Church Field.<\/p>\n She maintained her active life, never slowing down for anyone or anything.\u00a0 Indeed, in 1965 at the age of 63, she died from injuries caused by a horseback riding accident.<\/p>\n -30-<\/p>\n \u00a9 2011 J. Clark<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In 1930, Ellen Church was a newly licensed pilot who wanted to fly.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 … Continue reading