At eighteen, Emily Howell Warner flew on a flight to Gunnison, Colorado and fell in love with flying. Hearing about a Norwegian woman who was hired to fly for SAS, Warner set her sights on the same goal.
Over the next fifteen years she amassed 7,000 flight hours, numerous FAA certificates and ratings: private pilot, commercial, instrument, multi-engine, instructor and then Airline Transport Pilot. She was a flight instructor from 1961-1967 and by 1973, she had been a chief pilot, air taxi and flight school manager, FAA pilot examiner, and in charge of the United Airlines Contract Training Program for Clinton Aviation.
She persevered through years of training male students who went on to pilot for various airlines and applied for an airline pilot’s position with Frontier Airlines in 1973. After a grueling simulator test, Warner was offered the opportunity to realize her dreams.
She made aviation history almost every time she climbed aboard an airliner. She was the first female pilot for a scheduled U.S. carrier, the first female captain, and in 1986 commanded the first all-female flight crew in the U.S. She was the first woman member of the Airline Pilots Association, pioneering the way.
As a speaker, she sought to motivate the next generation with the message that determination and persistence will lead to success.
