If you’re flying out of town any time soon, think about your pilot.
That person is probably a man. In fact, 95% of all pilots in America are men.
It’s a stark reality that bold women in aviation are trying to break. Girls in Aviation Day, a special conference happening in Dallas and across the world next week, is aiming to put more women in the skies.
Reaching for the Skies
Women of flight are making headlines lately. This week, the first Black woman pilot of a spacecraft took off on Space-X. This summer, local female pilot Wally Funk became the oldest person to ever go to space.
It’s a story that has been playing out over the generations.
Funk, of Grapevine, herself broke the mold for women in flight over the past 60 years. She was the first female air-safety investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board and for the Federal Aviation Administration.
Two months ago, NBC 5 covered a watch party for her journey into space. A room filled with dozens of women pilots from the local chapter of The Ninety-Nines and Women in Aviation International, which are national organizations dedicated to women in the aviation industry.
That’s where we met Deborah Hecker, who has made supporting women in flight her lifelong mission.
“When you go into a field that’s really not traditional I think you really have to have a strong will and a dedication to just persevere and keep going,” she said.
She took a rather unconventional path to the skies.
“I got a degree in international relations and really knew nothing about aviation,” she said. “I didn’t know women could fly. I thought you had to be in the military.”
After graduating from Michigan State University, she traveled and eventually took up a waitressing job while studying for the LSAT. At the time, a friend whose father owned a cargo company told her she should instead become a pilot.
Her original track to law school was derailed when that friend gifted her a flight…