Today in Technology History
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May 15
On May 15, 1930, history's first crew of airline stewardesses took off for the first time.
As air travel became more affordable and flights became longer, it was apparent that someone would have to tend to the comfort of the passengers. The stewardess team was the brainchild of Ellen Church of Iowa. A 26-year-old registered nurse with a pilot's license, Church approached Boeing Air Transport with a proposal to include nurse-stewardesses on long flights.
Boeing agreed to a three-month experiment, and Church arranged for seven other nurses to serve as the original team of "Sky Girls." Their maiden flight, 71 years ago, was between San Francisco and Chicago. That first flight on a 24-passenger plane took 20 hours, with 13 stops.
Passengers liked the stewardesses, so the airline kept them and hired more. Other airlines followed suit.
Although Church was a stewardess for only 18 months herself, she was one of the first women to work in the airline industry and perhaps the first to serve as a manager. She was a decorated nurse during WWII, and she later worked as a hospital administrator. Church died in 1965 in a horseback riding accident.
In 1950, two decades after Church's first flight, men began to serve as airline stewards. Almost two more decades elapsed (1968) before airlines permitted married women to serve as stewardesses. Today, the preferred term is flight attendant, a term that applies to both men and women; there are about 100,000 in the U.S. alone.
Related links:
This page has a picture and biography of Church.
Click here to read more about the early history of flight attendants.
Click here to read about the occupation of flight attendant today.
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