Captain Lynn Rippelmeyer — From TWA Stewardess to Pioneering 747 Captain

Send us a text Pioneering airline pilot Lynn Rippelmeyer reflects on her extraordinary journey from being hired as a TWA stewardess in the early 1970s to becoming one of the first women to fly the Boeing 747, and later retiring from United Airlines after a career shaped both by deregulation, mergers, and furloughs, and by generosity, unexpected opportunities, and adventure. We talk about her two-part memoir, beginning with Life Takes Wings, which traces her path from the cabin to the flight deck at a time when women were told — explicitly — that they didn’t belong there. Lynn shares unforgettable stories from the cockpit, including a laugh-out-loud reading involving a seeing-eye dog, Florida mud, and an entire airport watching it unfold. In Life Takes Flight, the adventures continue as she pursues her flying career, takes a break to raise a family, and then returns to flying as a single mom.  This episode also explores:The transition from “stewardess” to “flight attendant” and what that shift meant culturallyBeing told women couldn’t fly “the heavies” — and proving otherwiseThe mentors (and gatekeepers) who shaped her careerHow discovering the WASP later in life reframed everything she’d been toldWhy writing her story became a responsibility, not just a creative actHow her flying career ultimately led to humanitarian work in Honduras and the founding of a nonprofit Lynn’s story sits at the intersection of aviation, feminism, labor history, and storytelling — and it’s one every aspiring aviator (and writer) should hear. Buy the books directly from Lynn to support her non-profit Roatan Support Effort. https://lynnrippelmeyer.com/purchase-now Did you know you can support your local independent bookshop and me by shopping through my Bookshop.org affiliate links on my website? If a book is available on Bookshop.org, you'll find a link to it on the book page. By shopping through the Literary Aviatrix website a small portion of the sale goes to support the content you love, at no additional cost to you. https://literaryaviatrix.com/shop-all-books/ Thanks so much for listening! Stay up to date on book releases, author events, and Aviatrix Book Club discussion dates with the Literary Aviatrix Newsletter. Visit the Literary Aviatrix website to find over 600 books featuring women in aviation in all genres for all ages. Become a Literary Aviatrix Patron and help amplify the voices of women in aviation. Follow me on social media, join the book club, and find all of the things on the Literary Aviatrix linkt.ree. Blue skies, happy reading, and happy listening! -Liz Booker