Bridging gender gap: all-women flight crew takes 120 girls to NASA headquarters

A flight operated exclusively by women took young females from Salt Lake City to the NASA Headquarters, promoting gender equality and drawing attention to the need for bridging the gender gap in aviation.

The extraordinary flight was aimed at inspiring young girls and exposing them to STEM careers (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Match, which remain mostly male-dominant.

The fifth-annual WING flight, Women Inspiring our Next Generation, took female fliers between 12 to 18 age group.

“From nose to tail, the flight was planned and orchestrated exclusively by women — including the pilots flying the plane, ramp agents working on the ground, gate agents boarding the flight and women in the tower guiding the aircraft on its way out,” the airline wrote in a statement.

In Houston, the girls took part in various activities and interacted with aerospace engineer Jeanette Epps.

They also toured Nasa’s Mission Control Centre, Building 9, Johnson Space Center and Space Center Houston. The group, later on, was also introduced to a number of mentors from various other aviation workshops.

Out of the 609,306 pilots in the US, about 7% are women, according to a report that quoted 2017 data from the Federal Aviation Administration’s Aeronautical Center.

There are no female flight navigators, according to the data.