Captain Lynn Rippelmeyer — From TWA Stewardess to Pioneering 747 Captain

Send us a text

Pioneering airline pilot Lynn Rippelmeyer reflects on her extraordinary journey from being hired as a TWA stewardess in the early 1970s to becoming one of the first women to fly the Boeing 747, and later retiring from United Airlines after a career shaped both by deregulation, mergers, and furloughs, and by generosity, unexpected opportunities, and adventure.

We talk about her two-part memoir, beginning with Life Takes Wings, which traces her path from the cabin to the flight deck at a time when women were told — explicitly — that they didn’t belong there. Lynn shares unforgettable stories from the cockpit, including a laugh-out-loud reading involving a seeing-eye dog, Florida mud, and an entire airport watching it unfold. In Life Takes Flight, the adventures continue as she pursues her flying career, takes a break to raise a family, and then returns to flying as a single mom. 

This episode also explores:

• The transition from “stewardess” to “flight attendant” and what that shift meant culturally
• Being told women couldn’t fly “the heavies” — and proving otherwise
• The mentors (and gatekeepers) who shaped her career
• How discovering the WASP later in life reframed everything she’d been told
• Why writing her story became a responsibility, not just a creative act
• How her flying career ultimately led to humanitarian work in Honduras and the founding of a nonprofit

Lynn’s story sits at the intersection of aviation, feminism, labor history, and storytelling — and it’s one every aspiring aviator (and writer) should hear.

Buy the books directly from Lynn to support her non-profit Roatan Support Effort. https://lynnrippelmeyer.com/purchase-now

Did you know you can support your local independent bookshop and me by shopping through my Bookshop.org affiliate links on my website? If a book is available on Bookshop.org, you'll find a link to it on the book page. By shopping through the Literary Aviatrix website a small portion of the sale goes to support the content you love, at no additional cost to you. https://literaryaviatrix.com/shop-all-books/

Thanks so much for listening!

• Stay up to date on book releases, author events, and Aviatrix Book Club discussion dates with the Literary Aviatrix Newsletter.
• Visit the Literary Aviatrix website to find over 600 books featuring women in aviation in all genres for all ages.
• Become a Literary Aviatrix Patron and help amplify the voices of women in aviation.
• Follow me on social media, join the book club, and find all of the things on the Literary Aviatrix linkt.ree.

Blue skies, happy reading, and happy listening!

-Liz Booker