15/05/2026
On May 15, 1930, a 25-year-old Iowa nurse named Ellen Church stepped onto a Boeing Air Transport biplane in Oakland, California, and made aviation history.
Church wanted to be a pilot. She had a nursing degree and a pilot's license, but at the time, no US airline would hire a woman to fly. So she pitched something else.
She walked into the San Francisco office of Boeing Air Transport, the predecessor to United Airlines, and proposed putting nurses on board. Passengers were afraid of flying, and a calm nurse in uniform would help ease their fears. The airline agreed to a three-month trial.
Church was hired as head stewardess and recruited seven other nurses, a group that became known as the "Sky Girls." Each had to be a registered nurse, single, no older than 25, no taller than 5 feet 4 inches, and weigh no more than 115 pounds.
On the morning of May 15, 1930, Church boarded a Boeing Model 80A trimotor for a 20-hour flight from Oakland to Chicago, with 13 stops along the way. Her duties went well beyond serving passengers. She also took tickets, loaded luggage, helped fuel the plane, and even tightened the bolts holding the seats to the floor.
The trial was a huge success. Other airlines quickly followed, and by 1935 there were already nearly 200 female flight attendants in the United States.
Church's own flying career ended just 18 months later, after a car accident. She returned to nursing, and during World War II she served as a captain and flight nurse in the US Army Air Forces, earning an Air Medal.
She passed away in 1965. Today, the airport in her hometown of Cresco, Iowa, bears her name, and the profession she invented employs more than 110,000 people in the US alone.
