WEAVING THE WINDS, Emily Howell Warner
by
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Emily Hanrahan Howell Warner is humble and is also
proud that, like her mentors, the WASPs, she opened the first door into the
world of U. S. commercial aviation so that today’s woman airline pilot can take
her rightful place in the sky. Like the thirty years that lapsed after WWII and
before the WASPs were recognized as having served in their country’s military
forces, thirty years elapsed after a few women briefly took to the skies in the
1930s before Emily’s career became a reality.
What a difference the convergence of social and
technological change meant. As women’s achievements became recognized and
appreciated and advances in aviation lured millions of travelers to the skies,
opportunities were created in which talented women could flourish. In Denver,
Colorado, Emily, although never resorting to legal battles, definitely
benefited. A burgeoning growth in aviation brought a need for more pilots and
the push for economic equality for women opened doors that had been barred.
Both contributed to the fertile climate in which Emily found career
opportunities. Both made it possible for her to be the first woman to be hired
as an airline pilot in the scheduled airline fleet, to enter a career in what
had been an all-male domain, and to ensure a unique place in history.
The Rockies,
an Eagle’s Eye View
Emily was alert to every sound, every odor.
Surrounded with the airport activities...bags being stowed, a pilot doing a
walk-around check of the airplane, refuelers filling the tanks, a stewardess
greeting each person who boarded...she felt as if her senses had gone into
overdrive. At last, the flight number announced, her family hugged her and
wished her well. She waved to them and climbed the boarding stairs. Welcomed by
the stewardess and once settled in her seat, she listened to the rhythm of the
engines as they coughed into activity and then settled into a synchronized
harmony.
As the craft shuddered forward in its taxi, she felt
the rocking motion that was not unlike the comfortable gait of a loping horse. Her
excitement built as the aircraft turned to take the runway and she felt herself
pulled back into her seat. She felt more than heard the increased whine of the
engines, the throbbing power; the horse stretched into a full gallop.
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
Women flew in balloons before the Wright Brothers
conquered powered flight. Soon after, they tested their skills in new-fangled
flying machines. Women pilots taught male pilots to fly for two World Wars. Someone
said, “A woman taught you to walk; a woman can teach you to fly.”
Yet, it took 59 years
for the first U.S. woman to become an airline pilot in jet-equipped craft –
one special woman. To melt ingrained
resistance, she brought many more flight hours than most male applicants and she
understood well the value of cockpit teamwork and cooperation. That special
woman was Emily Howell Warner. Early in 1973, Emily wove the winds of chance,
of change, and of opportunity to give wing to her own flying career and to throw
open cockpit doors to women who followed.
It wasn’t easy. Emily worked hard for her chances.
She seized upon changes wrought by the women’s liberation movement and grasped
each possible opportunity. As a metaphor for life, a stable aircraft can be put
into rotation. Emily faced some turbulent spins; but, she always managed to
recover. She changed obstacles into challenges; she answered critics with
excellence. A male airline captain said of her, “Atta boy, girl.”
About the Author
Believing that “Amelia Earhart wasn’t the only woman
pilot,” Ann Lewis Cooper, a flight instructor and aviation author, has proved
it. Having published the stories of four women pilots who made aviation
history: Edna Gardner Whyte (RISING ABOVE
IT), Jessie Woods (ON THE WING),
Dot Swain Lewis (HOW HIGH SHE FLIES),
and Patty Wagstaff (FIRE and AIR),
she now offers WEAVING THE WINDS, Emily
Howell Warner. With her husband Charlie, Cooper has co-authored TUSKEGEE’S HEROES, HOW TO DRAW AIRCRAFT LIKE A PRO, and WAR IN PACIFIC SKIES. Cooper edited AERO BRUSH, the newsletter of the American Society of Aviation
Artists for 12 years. Her freelance articles have been published in Sport Aviation, Sport Pilot, Kitplanes,
Private Pilot, and Aviation History.