Early Pilot and Flight Attendant Uniforms

By the early 1930s, airlines were introducing distinctive uniforms for their employees, and women were entering the ranks of flight attendants.

Pilots were given military-style uniforms to reflect their status. Pan American emulated luxurious ocean liner service by calling its flying boats "Clippers" and its pilots "Captains," and attiring its crews in naval-style uniforms with white hats and navy-blue, double-breasted jackets and rank insignia on the sleeve cuffs. Other airlines followed suit. Many of these customs continue today.

While Pan Am and other airlines employed men as stewards, Boeing Air Transport introduced the first female stewards.

The First Stewardess

A nurse from Iowa, Ellen Church wanted to become an airline pilot but realized that was not possible for a woman in her day. So in 1930, she approached Steve Simpson at Boeing Air Transport with the novel idea of placing nurses aboard airliners. She convinced him that the presence of women nurses would help relieve the traveling public's fear of flying. Church developed the job description and training program for the first stewardesses.

Church first flew as a stewardess between Oakland and Chicago. She had only served for 18 months when an automobile accident grounded her. After her recovery, she completed her college degree and returned to nursing.

United Air Lines' "Original Eight" female flight attendants. Boeing Air Transport (later United) district manager Steve Stimpson introduced the first stewardesses to provide better customer service along B.A.T.'s San Francisco-Chicago route. He even designed the first stewardess uniform.