LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — A Las Vegas pilot spoke to FOX5 hoping that sharing her families’ history can inspire other women in aviation.
Airline pilot Lauren Scott said this story starts roughly a century ago when her aunt, Mary Webb Nicholson, started her own aviation career.
Nicholson wasn’t only the first licensed female pilot in North Carolina. Scott said she was also one of the couple-dozen American women who joined the Air Transport Auxiliary in the United Kingdom during World War II.
“They were often cold, tired. They couldn’t carry charts and maps and things on board because it could be dangerous if it fell into enemy hands,” Scott explained. “But, I know that she loved it, because she loved flying and she was so happy to be part of the war effort.”
Their job was to deliver new planes to the front lines and return plans that needed to be fixed.
“They were literally groundbreaking, not only aviation, but women having a place in aviation,” Scott said.
Although Nicholson ultimately gave her life to the war effort, her legacy lives on through her family.
“The fact that she started all of this, not knowing at the time how she was getting so many family members into it that would follow her, that’s very special to me,” Scott said.
Scott has her own lengthy career in aviation, working as a flight instructor, and now as an airline pilot. She even taught her own daughter how to fly at the age of 16.
“It was really hard for me to watch, those first few seconds of her going by herself, because I thought, ‘Have I taught her everything she needs to know?’ Number one, and, ‘What have I done,’” She joked. “It’s an activity that has a very low tolerance for error.”
Her daughter followed in her mother’s footsteps, becoming a commercial airline pilot herself.
Scott explained why she felt compelled to share her family’s unique story.
“The more I can share, the more opportunities I have to inspire the next generation of pilots,” she said. “If somebody hadn’t stepped into my life and said, ‘Hey, let me take you for a plane ride,’ my life could have looked completely different.”
Women only make up about 5 percent of airline transport pilots, according Women in Aviation International. Even still, Scott said the barriers she runs into in the present day are pale in comparison to what her Aunt Mary overcame.
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