PEOPLE
BY LIZZY SPANGLER
Capt. Lynn Rippelmeyer Pilot is rst woman to y Boeing 747 Magnolia resident Capt. Lynn Rippelmeyer is the rst woman to y a Boeing 747 and was part of the rst all-female crew to pilot a plane, she said. Although she originally went to college on a teaching scholarship, Rippelmeyer started out as a ight attendant and became a pilot in the late ’70s, she said. Rippelmeyer retired in 2014, authored “Life Takes Wings” and is the founder of the nonpro t Roatan Support E ort, which provides aid to Honduras. She spoke to Community Impact Newspaper about her ying career. Responses have been edited for length and clarity.
Capt. Lynn Rippelmeyer holds up a photo of herself standing on a jet engine. (Lizzy Spangler/Community Impact Newspaper)
FLYING HIGH LIGHTS Having spent decades in the
WHEN DID YOU DEVELOP AN INTEREST IN FLYING? I was always interested in ying. I grew up on a farm [in Illinois], and I had a horse, and I loved pretending that we could take o . … And just about 2 miles from the farm were limestone blu s you could climb up and see what the world looked like from 300 feet. And I would just imagine what it would be like to soar. WHEN DID YOU JOIN THE AVIATION INDUSTRY? A friend was going for an interview [as] a [Trans World Airlines] ight attendant and invited me to go along. We both got hired, and I became a ight attendant. The [Boeing] 747 had just come out, … so as a new hire, that’s the airplane I was assigned, and as the youngest one, I was assigned to serve the cockpit. … I learned a lot. WHEN DID YOU OFFICIALLY BECOME A PILOT? In 1977, there was a need for pilots again. It’s a very cyclical business, even now. I had another unique set of circumstances [that] led me to y for a little commuter airline called
Air Illinois. … For TWA [Airlines], they wanted [pilots to have] jet time, so that was a way to be able to get [jet time]. So I took a leave of absence as a ight attendant and got hired by Air Illinois. WHAT WAS IT LIKE TO BE PART OF THE FIRST ALL FEMALE CREW TO FLY? [Air Illinois] had another lady they already hired a couple of months earlier who was ying as a captain. Her name was Emilie Jones. … The [owner of the airline] says, ‘OK. You’re hired, … but of course, you’re not going to y together. … We have to have a man up there in case anything goes wrong, you know? And we don’t want to scare away our passengers, do we?’ So that was in September. So for three months, we knew of each other, but we didn’t y together. … But then Dec. 30, 1977, [there] was a big storm, and none of the other pilots could get to the airport. And Emilie was the captain, and I was the rst o cer that could get there. … The dispatcher calls and said, ‘OK, there’s 15 people that want to go to St. Louis. What do we tell them?’
And [the owner] says, ‘OK, let them take the airplane, but keep the door closed, and they don’t make any announcements. The passengers can’t know how this happened.’ So we did, and we just had a regular ight. We both just did our job; it was no big deal. ... And so [after that], they didn’t have that restriction [on no all-female crews] anymore. HOW DID YOU BECOME THE FIRST WOMAN TO FLY A BOEING 747? That was probably the biggest [wow moment] just because I didn’t know if I could [ y such a big plane]. … This other stu , I knew I could. ... But no woman had ever own a 747, and there’s nobody to call [for advice]. So many people told me that it couldn’t be done, that a woman just couldn’t handle that airplane. … I didn’t want to prove them right and fail and set womankind back. ... But my chief pilot was so con dent in me and such a good instructor that I ended up having to believe that he would not put me in a situation that was either dangerous or embarrass- ing. So if he thought I could do it, I could do it. And so I did.
industry, Capt. Lynn Rippelmeyer recalled highlights from her aviation career from which she retired in 2014.
Rippelmeyer starts working as a ight attendant. 1972 She starts taking ying lessons. 1973 Along with Emilie Jones, Rippelmeyer ies with Trans World Airlines as part of the rst all-female crew. DEC. 30, 1977 Rippelmeyer becomes the rst woman to y a Boeing 747. JULY 7, 1980
She retires as a pilot. JANUARY 2014
To learn more about Capt. Lynn Rippelmeyer and her nonpro t, visit www.lynnrippelmeyer.com
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TOMBALL MAGNOLIA EDITION • SEPTEMBER 2022
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