Emily Howell Warner
Inductee Name
Emily Howell Warner
Place of Birth
Colorado
Date of Birth
1939 – 2020
Year Inducted
2002
Category
STEM / Aviation
Sponsor
The Howell Warner Family
Impact
Nationwide
Denver native Emily Howell Warner took her first airplane flight as a teenager and came away from that experience with a passion to fly and become an airplane pilot. In 1973, 67 years after the “Wright Flyer” made aviation history and 15 years after her first plane flight, Warner also made aviation history by becoming the first woman hired as a pilot by a major U.S. airline, Frontier. Three years later she earned her captain’s wings, the first woman to do so. With more than 21,000 flight hours (more than any other woman pilot in the world), Warner was a Federal Aviation Administration Aircrew Program Manager, assigned to United Airlines’ Boeing 737 Fleet. She was also the FAA representative for United’s Flight Safety Action Program. She opened the door for thousands of women pilots and has been a personal mentor and role model to many. Along the way she won almost every aviation award given, including the Amelia Earhart Award as the Outstanding Woman in U. S. Aviation. She was the featured speaker for the United Nations Kickoff Dinner for International Women’s Year. In 1983 she was inducted into the Colorado Aviation Hall of Fame and was a 2001 inductee into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York. Her uniform now hangs in the Smithsonian Institution’s Air and Space Museum. She passed away July 3, 2020. She was 80 years old.
News
Nomination to the National Aviation Hall of Fame – December 17, 2013
