Women Aviators From The United States

"That’s it… You just called it for me!"

"Blacks should not have to experience the difficulties I have faced," Coleman said. "So I decided to open a flying school and teach other Black women to fly. For accidents may happen and there would be someone to take my place"

"I read everything I could get my hands on about aviating," she later recalled. "Some of the libraries wouldn't let black girls who picked cotton borrow books, but the books I wanted were about piloting, and folks were so surprised they let me have them anyway."

"I was black, I was female, and I wanted to fly. We used to pick cotton in Texas, and I'd look up and think, If we're going to better ourselves, we've got to get above these cotton fields."

"Every no takes me closer to a yes."

"Earthbound souls know only the underside of the atmosphere in which they live. But go up higher — above the dust and water vapor — and the sky turns dark until one can see the stars at noon."

"To live without risk for me would be tantamount to death."

"One day, I got a call to come into General Arnold's office. He said, "What do you know about the B-26?" I said, "I don’t know a thing except the scuttlebutt that it’s a so-called hot airplane." The men were saying that they were willing to be killed in war, but they wouldn't fly the B-26. ... I flew the plane and didn't see any thing so difficult about it. I came back and said to General Arnold, "I can cure your men of walking off the program. Let's put on the girls.""

"It was big, it was heavy and it tended to be slightly underpowered,” Lohrenz says. “You’re coming across the back end of that aircraft carrier, going about 165 miles an hour, and you slam down on that deck and come to a complete stop in just under 1.2 seconds.”"

"“All I wanted desperately was just to blend in and be a fighter pilot, not a female fighter pilot,” she says. “The plane doesn’t know what gender you are. The plane just wants to fly.”"

"“When you hear these little comments, whether it’s about your fingernail polish or your hair or what you’re wearing at the time, it can feel like the slow drop of Chinese water torture,” Lohrenz recalls. “When you’re there to fly this magnificent fighter jet, it chips away at you.”"

"I was so stoked. When those assignments came out, based on my performance, I was assigned to fly the F-14 Tomcat,”"

"I wanted to fly fighters because those pilots were the cream of the crop,” she says. “I thought to myself, Well, it takes about two years to get through this program. So maybe by the time I’m done , they will have lifted the law.”"

"Anything great that you’re going to want to accomplish is going to involve fear and discomfort, and making other people uncomfortable,” she says. “But you have to go for it anyway. That’s how you make a difference.”"

"“Those of us who grow up in a system thinking, ‘All I have do is perform, and my performance will speak for itself’ can actually be left behind,”"

"People think that fighter pilots aren’t afraid of anything, and yet that’s not true,” she says. “It’s that we’ve learned and developed the ability to work through fear, and flip it, and make it actionable, so that it works for us, and not against us.”"

"“Midwestern stoicism … that ability to just do the work with no fanfare” may be uniquely Wisconsin"

"Courage does not mean the absence of fear , it means you have to feel the fear and go for it anyway,”"

"“At the end of the day it’s not about me. It’s what can somebody do with the lessons that I learned. If there’s part of my story that I can share — or if there’s somebody who looks at me and thinks, Oh my gosh, maybe I can do that too — then it’s worth it,”"

"“I’m like, ‘OK, what are your resources? What are your threats?’ And then in big jumbo sidewalk chalk I drew this strategic plan for him in under 10 minutes. And he ran in, got a camera and took a picture,” Lohrenz says. “And next thing you know I'm starting a strategic planning consulting career.”"

"“I faced a lot of up and downs. But, I started my career in the cockpit and I ended my career in the cockpit. I wouldn’t have it any other way,”"

"“ Fearless Leadership: High-Performance Lessons from the Flight Deck ” and “ Span of Control: What to do When You Are Under Pressure, Overwhelmed and Ready to Get What You Really Want .“"

"“So, knowing that history and understanding that every day I showed up, I was standing on the shoulders of greatness,” she says. “Calm is your superpower , but the relentless scrutiny simply because I was a woman, that was nonstop.”"

"“thumb|U.S. Navy Adm. James A. Winnefeld, right, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, speaks to Carey Lohrenz, the first female F-14 Tomcat aircraft pilot in the Navy, during 2013 Joint Women's Leadership 130606-D-HU462-118So, knowing that history and understanding that every day I showed up, I was standing on the shoulders of greatness,” she says. “Calm is your superpower , but the relentless scrutiny simply because I was a woman, that was nonstop.”"

"Maybe their family says it's not a safe option," she said. "But it's about becoming a safe operator of your machine no matter what your adventure is — even if you were trying to be a doctor."

"the whole reason she does what she does is to propel the future of women who will fly tomorrow’s airplanes," the younger Amelia Earhart said. "That’s me. I’m flying tomorrow’s planes.”"

"While my family and Amelia's did settle in nearby counties in the same state, the only thing we shared was our last name,"

""In the last 24 hours, new information from a team of researchers that I hired shows that while I share a name and a passion for flying with Amelia Earhart, we are not from the same family," says Earhart, a news traffic reporter for the NBC affiliate in Denver, Gannett-owned KUSA 9News. Gannett also owns USA TODAY."

"When I decided to re-create Amelia's flight around the world, it became clear that it was time to establish the exact connection between the two of us. So I hired a team of expert genealogists to finally establish the link," she says. "So my connection to Amelia isn't what I thought it was. And I'll admit, the last 24 hours, they've been really hard. It's tough to hear that something you've believed your whole life just isn't true.""

"The aircraft was old, filthy, smelled like a dusty old farm truck, and instilled zero confidence in its ability to keep my instructor and I safely in the sky. My instructor was the human version of this aircraft. Crotchety, grumpy, smelled of stale cigarette smoke was NOT impressed that my name was Amelia Earhart. I remember feeling very out of place at the airport, clueless, awkward, in the way. We did a pre-flight inspection on the plane, my instructor helped me buckle myself into the left seat of the Cessna 172 and we were off."

"I had a team of close to twenty-five people that I worked with on a daily basis to help me troubleshoot as we went, but no one was going to step in and do the work for me. Over the course of the two years leading up to the flight, I exchanged over sixteen thousand emails about flight logistics."

"I knew I was about to see, with my very own eyes, the one piece of land that Amelia and her navigator Fred Noonan wanted to see with every part of their being."

"Everyone has ocean’s to fly, if they have the heart to do it. Is it reckless? Maybe. But what do dreams know of boundaries?”"

"I want my legacy to evoke an emotion of curious adventure, childishly peer into the night sky, and falling deeply in love, over and over again with the beauty of the star-splattered front seat views. I want to challenge the idea that we are bound to the Earth. I want to live by example, being the author of my life-long ‘Choose Your Own Adventure’ book."

"We are a Colorado based, non-profit organization that has awarded funds to close to twenty young women so far and will continue to grow, becoming a resource of scholarships, aviation resources, aerospace opportunity, and inspiration for girls who want to fly."

"Even if you are with a group of adults in their 50s and a child, we all get that overall look on our faces,"

"It's awesome and it's invigorating. (Flying is) a great joy,"

""In high school my thing was public speaking and debate," Earhart said. "Right around that 18-20 age range I was thinking about taking my first flight lesson. During that discovery flight I began to think about the possibility that aviation could take me anywhere I wanted to go."

"As a woman named Amelia Earhart I have a unique opportunity to take.""

"Unfortunately, the number of pilots that are women are low," Amelia Rose said. "It's around 6 percent. There was an influx of women becoming pilots, but we really have seen it taper off."

"The biggest challenge for me was paying for it. I wanted to eliminate the cost and find girls who are really passionate. Flying is a huge amount of responsibility. You have to be organized and work well with others and in confined spaces. It's not just about flying it's about being a well-rounded person with an adventurous side."

"We committed last year to really integrating social media into this flight," Amelia Rose said. "We are going to remote parts of the world. You will be seeing tweets from us at 30,000 feet. You haven't seen that with around the world flights.""

""The flight around the world is to honor Amelia Earhart, to trust that adventures are still out there," she said. "We may not be using the old technology that they had in the Elektra, but look at the coordination and planning behind it. I would challenge those people to create their own adventure."

"When you live life like an adventure — like Amelia did — it makes everything very exciting. It makes me feel proud. A lot of that comes down to your willingness to put in the effort and hard work."

"The flexible education experience at Laurel Springs is a great opportunity for these students and I love how they can pursue their passions while receiving a top-flight education," Earhart said. "I can't wait to share my story with these passionate students and encourage them to continue following their dreams.""

""While we recognize people are still struggling and the last two years haven't been easy, commencement is a reminder of the bright future awaiting the Class of 2022," says Megan O'Reilly Palevich, M.Ed, head of Laurel Springs School. "Remember what you've learned in your time at Laurel Springs, celebrate what you've accomplished, and always cherish the relationships birthed here. Let the lessons you learned inside our virtual walls help you set your ambitions and drive your life forward toward them."

"They're all about turbulence," she said. "As pilots, we know that turbulence is one of many sky conditions. We agree to the chance of turbulence when we take off to go up in flight ... I think if we take a pilot's perspective on how to navigate it, it can help out a lot."

"Adventure is worthwhile in itself," "I think there's a new focus on adventure that we've only seen in the last five to 10 years. But whatever your version of flying is – it could be starting a business, it could be something entrepreneurial – we want to encourage people to pursue their own adventure.""

"The feeling I have when I get up there in the airplane is unlike anything else,""

"Discovering who I’m not has led me to fully and finally understand who I really am,”. “In the last 24 hours new information from a team of researchers that I hired shows that while I share a name and a passion for flying with the first Amelia Earhart we’re not from the same family. And while I am her namesake, nothing in life is ever really as simple as we want it to be.”"