Three Women in Aviation You May Not Have Heard Of

Women have also played significant roles throughout the history of aviation, from the early pioneers who defied societal norms to modern-day pilots. Despite their contributions, many of these women remain relatively unknown to the public. From forgotten trailblazers to unsung heroes, the stories of these lesser-known women in aviation are a testament to the power of perseverance, determination, and a love of flight.

Jessica Cox

Jessica Cox is an accomplished pilot, athlete, public speaker, and mentor for people with disabilities. She was born on February 2, 1983, in Sierra Vista, Arizona. Cox was born without arms. Cox has practiced taekwondo since she was 10 years old and currently has a fourth-degree black belt from the American Taekwondo Association. She is also SCUBA certified. 

Cox graduated from the University of Arizona in 2004 with a degree in psychology and soon after began her career in public speaking. During a speaking event, Cox was approached with the opportunity to fly in a single-engine aircraft. Soon after, Cox devoted three years to flight training. She flies a 415-C Ercoupe, an aircraft that was designed without traditional rudder pedals. Pilots fly by controlling the yoke of the aircraft, which Cox steers with her feet. In May 2008, Cox achieved her first solo flight, followed by her pilot's license in October of the same year. Cox holds the Guinness World Record as the first woman to fly an airplane with her feet.

Cox has expanded her work to include advocacy and mentorship for people with disabilities. Since establishing Rightfooted Foundation International in 2017, Cox has mentored more than 100 children with disabilities. She has also served as a Handicap International Goodwill Ambassador. In 2020 Cox took Senator Tom Harkin on a flight to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Candace C. LaRocca

Candace C. LaRocca was a flight attendant for United Air Lines between 1969 and 1985. LaRocca was based in Chicago, San Francisco, and Washington, DC, during her career, which spanned a transformative period in the history of flight attending with the deregulation of the airline industry.

Stewardess programs were highly competitive as thousands of women applied for the position. It was a unique and rewarding profession for its time, at first offering young, and primarily white, women personal growth while traveling throughout the United States and the world.

LaRocca received her stewardess diploma from United Air Lines in 1969 when those who aspired to be stewardesses were met with strict guidelines for their appearance based largely on gender stereotypes. These gendered beauty standards relating to weight, height, make up, and hair styling were established through personal grooming courses during training. The women attended personality training courses, too, which instructed them to use their feminine tact to calm disturbed or difficult male passengers.

The concurring women’s, civil rights, and labor movements offered dramatic changes and opportunities. During her time as a flight attendant, LaRocca simultaneously pursued a bachelor’s degree in business, which she earned in 1983. Encouraged by a supervisor to gain additional experience, LaRocca also taught a course at Northern Virginia Community College for people interested in airline careers. In 1985, LaRocca transitioned into a corporate role with United, becoming a senior account executive for commercial sales working with travel agents and tour operators, as well as managing the corporate accounts of clients such as the World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund (IMF). LaRocca left United in 1991 but continued on to other career opportunities related to transportation and travel including working as the Manager of Transportation and Shipping for the African Development Bank; in corporate sales for SwissAir and SABENA, the Belgian national airline; as an account manager for a travel agency; and as the Director of Resource Management for the Africa Center for Strategic Studies.

Ellen Paneok

Ellen Evak Paneok was a pioneering bush pilot and the first Native woman licensed pilot in Alaska. Born in 1959 to the daughter of an Inupiat mother from Kotzebue, Alaska, Paneok discovered her passion for aviation while reading a magazine article on flight as a teen. She used funds from the Alaska Claims Settlement Act to begin her aviation career and funded her flying lessons at Merrill Field in Anchorage by selling her own drawings, scrimshaws, and carved ivory pieces. In 1979, she received her pilot's license and then obtained certifications for flight instructor, multi-engine aircraft, and Air Transport Pilot. She became a bush pilot flying cargo and United States mail for Barrow Air Inc. in Barrow, Alaska, to remote communities in her Piper Cherokee Six. One notable shipment flight included live wolverines. Later she flew for air taxi services. She excelled in the challenging and changeable Alaskan weather and ground conditions and earned respect as a skilled, resilient pilot.

Paneok worked for the Federal Aviation Administration as an operations inspector and later served on the board of the Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum. She was one of the few pilots allowed to fly the Museum’s vintage aircraft. The owner of a succession of planes, she enjoyed working on her antique restoration projects at her home on a community airstrip. She logged more than 15,000 hours of flight time throughout her lifetime.

Paneok was an artist, lecturer, and a prolific writer who was published in several magazines. She was featured in several books including as one of 37 women in Carolyn Russo’s Women and Flight Portraits of Contemporary Women Pilots. Paneok died in 2008 and was posthumously inducted into the Alaska Women’s Hall of Fame in 2012.