Foil: 11 Panel: 4 Column: 2 Line: 60

Wall of Honor Level:
Air and Space Friend

Honored by:
Bernd K. Klopfer

Joy L Klopfer, DOB September 15, 1944 in San Francisco, CA
Joy started flying lessons in Florida when she was 31. We had been married almost 10 years and had 2 children.
She took to flying like a duck to water. In very short order she had her private, commercial, single and multi-engine and flight instructor licenses. In less than two years she also had the Airline Transport (ATP) and Turbojet Flight Engineer licenses. She worked as a flight instructor and charter pilot in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. In early 1979 she got hired to fly copilot on a Learjet.
At this time the airlines were starting to hire women and Joy had interviews at several airlines. She had too many handicaps, such as her age (too old at 34), only 3 years of college, married, children (who would watch them while she was out on a trip?) etc. She continued flying Learjets for a year and then she was hired by GE to fly their corporate jets, Falcon 20's and later Canadair Challengers, out of White Plains, NY. She was GE's first female pilot.
In late 1988 she tried the airlines again. This time, at 44, she was not too old and she was hired by United Airlines. To her dismay, United liked to point out that she was the first grandmother to be hired for a cockpit position. She started as a DC-8 flight engineer, then moved to 727 copilot and 757/767 copilot. In 1998 she upgraded to 767 Captain, where she flew to places like London, Amsterdam, Delhi, Buenos Aires, Sao Paulo, and the usual domestic stations.
In October 1999 she achieved a "first" in commercial aviation when she flew captain on a flight from New York (JFK) to Los Angeles (LAX) and in the right seat was First Officer Glenn Klopfer, our son. The first mother and child crew! The ultimate "Take your child to work" day!
Captain Joy retired in 2004 but she still keeps in touch with aviation by working part-time in a ground position at Delta Airlines in Las Vegas.