Angela Masson facts for kids

Gayl Angela Masson (born 1951) is an American pilot, inventor, teacher, and artist. She flew huge commercial airplanes for American Airlines for more than 30 years. She made history by becoming the very first woman certified to fly the giant Boeing 747 as a captain. Along with flying, she earned a advanced college degree called a PhD from the University of Southern California in 1976. Masson also invented useful tools for cockpits, taught college students how to fly, and set several world flight speed records.

Early Life and Growing Up

Masson was born in 1951 at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, California. Her father was a doctor and also loved flying airplanes as an aviator. Growing up around aviation inspired her to take to the skies herself. She went to school in Europe and graduated from Collegio Monte Rosa in Territet.

Masson was a very bright student who started college at a remarkably young age. She began studying at the University of Southern California when she was only 15 years old. Over the next nine years, she earned four separate college degrees, finishing with her PhD in 1976. Her studies focused on aerospace safety, learning how to make airplanes and air travel much safer for everyone.

Learning to Fly and Early Aviation Records

First Flights in California

Masson began taking flying lessons when she was 15 years old. Her training started at Clover Field located in Santa Monica, California. In 1967, she flew completely by herself for the first time in a small Cessna 150 airplane.

Soon after getting her official pilot's license, she began entering air racing competitions. Flying fast planes required quick thinking and sharp skills. When she turned 21, she flew in the famous 1972 Powder Puff Derby. During that exciting race, she set a record as the youngest person to fly across the United States in a high-performance aircraft.

Teaching Others and Helping Women Fly

In 1971, Masson worked as an instructor at the Claire Walters Flight Academy. She taught military cadets how to fly and spent over 1,000 hours in the air. Later, she worked as a charter pilot for Express Airways near Naval Air Station Lemoore, flying planes on a special contract for the United States Navy.

Masson noticed that women were not treated equally in military aviation at that time. She wanted to help change these unfair rules. She wrote her university research paper on the Air Force and how women could serve as military pilots. Leaders in the United States government read her research during important hearings about allowing women into military academies.

Career with Major Airlines

Flying Giant Jet Airliners

A top leader named Robert Crandall, who ran American Airlines, read Masson's impressive college research paper. He hired her to fly for the airline in 1976 when she was 25 years old.

She quickly broke barriers in commercial aviation. She became the first woman to serve as First Officer on giant passenger jets like the Boeing 707, the Boeing 767, and the wide-body Douglas DC-10. Later, she earned certifications to pilot many other large jetliners, including:

• The twin-engine Airbus A310
• The long-range Boeing 757
• The wide-body Boeing 777
• The classic passenger jet Douglas DC-9
• The three-engine airliner MD-11

Becoming a Boeing 747 Captain

Masson reached a historic aviation milestone on June 30, 1984. She earned her official type-rating to command the jumbo Boeing 747. This achievement made her the first woman in history qualified to fly that massive airplane as captain.

She worked as an airline captain for more than 20 years. In 1997, she became the first female Chief Pilot for American Airlines at their base in Miami. By the time she retired in 2007, she had completed over 31 years of airline service. She also helped start the International Society of Women Airline Pilots to support other female aviators. In 2018, she joined the California Aviation Hall of Fame.

Setting World Speed Records

Flying big airplanes fast became one of Masson's specialties. She earned eight official world speed records between 2001 and 2004 while flying routes in a Boeing 777. The world flight organization called the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale gave her multiple awards for these rapid commercial trips.

Inventions and Teaching

Creating the Electronic Flight Bag

Pilots used to carry very heavy leather bags filled with paper charts, weather maps, and flight manuals. In 1999, Masson patented a brand-new computer tool called the Electronic Kit Bag.

Her invention was the first true electronic flight bag. It replaced heavy paper books with digital screens inside the cockpit. Masson designed her system to assist pilots during flight and even help land airplanes safely from the ground during emergencies. Today, digital flight bags are standard equipment on almost all modern airliners.

Teaching the Next Generation

After retiring from commercial flying, Masson shared her deep knowledge with young students. She worked as an assistant professor teaching flight science at Jacksonville University. She also taught aviation courses at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and helped high school students learn about aerospace careers.

Creative Arts and Personal Life

Masson is also a creative painter and musician. When she was 18 years old, she created 52 oil paintings that were displayed in art galleries in Italy. Two of her colorful paintings appeared on screen in the 1995 movie The Perez Family.

During the 1980s, she hosted a local program called The Tangela Tricoli Talk Show on Public-access television. She also wrote songs and released an album titled Jet Lady in 1982 using her artist name.

Masson lives in St. Augustine, Florida. She once ran for public office during the 1981 Los Angeles mayoral election, proposing new high-speed transportation ideas to reduce highway traffic. She still loves airplanes and owns a small training plane called a Scottish Aviation Bulldog. Through her long career, she showed that women can reach the very highest levels of aviation and technology.