Angela Masson facts for kids

Gayl Angela Masson (born 1951) is an amazing American aviator, which means she's a pilot, and also a talented artist. She worked as a pilot for American Airlines for more than 30 years. She made history by becoming the first woman allowed to fly the huge Boeing 747 airplane as a captain.

Angela Masson earned a special advanced degree called a PhD from the University of Southern California in 1976. She studied how to make flying safer and wrote about how the Air Force reacted to women wanting to be pilots. She also broke several speed records on regular airplane routes and was the first woman to become a Chief Pilot for American Airlines.

Besides flying, Masson has taught about airplanes at Jacksonville University and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. She even invented something important for pilots called the Electronic Kit Bag, which was the first real electronic flight bag. She's also a painter and a musician. She released an album in 1982 called Jet Lady using the name Tangela Tricoli.

Early Life and School

Gayl Angela Masson was born in 1951 in Los Angeles, California. Her parents were Margo and Jack Masson. Her dad was a heart doctor and also a pilot! Angela went to school at Collegio Monte Rosa in Territet, Switzerland.

She started attending the University of Southern California when she was only 15 years old. She studied there from 1967 to 1976. During this time, she earned several degrees, including her BFA, MA, MPA, and PhD. Her main focus was on how to manage public services, especially looking at aerospace safety and how systems work.

Angela Masson's Flying Career

Angela Masson began taking flying lessons when she was 15 at Clover Field in Santa Monica, California. She flew a Cessna 150 by herself for the first time at Clover Field in 1967. Soon after getting her pilot's license, she started air racing. When she was 21, she flew in the 1972 Powder Puff Derby. In this race, she set a record for being the youngest person to fly from one side of the country to the other in a fast airplane.

In 1971, Masson trained new pilots for the U.S. armed forces at the Claire Walters Flight Academy. She flew for over 1,000 hours during this time. After that, she worked as a charter pilot for Express Airways. She flew out of Naval Air Station Lemoore under a contract for the Navy. She noticed that her male students were flying jets, but women were not allowed to fly in the military. This made her want to go back to school to earn her doctorate degree.

At age 24, she wrote her PhD paper called "Elements of Organizational Discrimination: The Air Force Response to Women as Military Pilots." This paper was so important that it was even mentioned in the U.S. Congress during discussions about allowing women into military academies.

The president of American Airlines, Robert Crandall, read Masson's paper. He was so impressed that he hired her as a pilot for the airline in 1976, when she was 25. During her time at American Airlines, she was the first woman to fly as a First Officer on several large planes, including the Boeing 707, 767, and Douglas DC-10.

Angela Masson learned to fly many different types of aircraft. These included the Airbus A310, Boeing 747, 757, 767, 777, DC-9, DC-10, and MD-11. She has a special pilot's license called an ATP, and she can also fly gliders and seaplanes. She also has certificates to be a flight engineer and an instructor. On June 30, 1984, she became the first woman to get a type-rating for the Boeing 747. This means she was officially certified to be the captain of that specific type of plane.

Masson has set eight world speed records. Several of these were for commercial air routes in the Boeing 777, which she set between 2001 and 2004. The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, a world organization for air sports, has given her many awards for her Commercial Air Route Speed records.

She flew as a Captain for over 20 years. In 1997, she became the first female Chief Pilot for American Airlines in Miami. As the most experienced female pilot, she retired in December 2007 after more than 31 years of service. She helped start the International Society of Women Airline Pilots and was its Chairwoman from 2009 to 2011. In 2018, she was honored by being added to the California Aviation Hall of Fame.

Teaching About Airplanes

Angela Masson is an assistant professor of aeronautics at Jacksonville University. From 2016 to 2020, she was also a professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. She also taught at the St. Augustine High School Aerospace Academy, helping young people learn about flying.

Artistic Talents

Angela Masson is a very talented artist and painter. When she was 18, 52 of her oil paintings were sent to Italy and shown in several art shows there. Her mother once described her paintings as "Big Einstein faces with three eyes." Two of her paintings were even used on the set of the 1995 movie The Perez Family.

For a short time, Masson hosted a talk show called The Tangela Tricoli Talk Show on public access TV in Los Angeles. She also sang and recorded the 1982 album Jet Lady under the name "Tangela Tricoli." This album was re-released in 2004.

Inventions and Patents

In 1999, Angela Masson received a patent for the first real electronic flight bag. She called it the Electronic Kit Bag (EKB). This device was designed to replace all the paper charts and manuals a pilot usually carries. Her patents describe how the EKB helps pilots with their normal flying tasks. It's also meant to be a life-saving device that could even land an aircraft remotely if a pilot became unable to fly.

Personal Life

Angela Masson lives in St. Augustine, Florida. She once ran for mayor of Los Angeles in 1981. Her daughter, Athena, is a meteorologist who studies tropical storms. Angela's sister, Lisa Masson, is a doctor. Angela Masson owns a small airplane called a Scottish Aviation Bulldog.