First flight as the world's first female airline stewardess

On May 15, 1930, Ellen Church boarded a Boeing Air Transport (a predecessor of United Airlines) trimotor aircraft in Oakland, California, bound for Chicago, Illinois, and in doing so became the world's first female airline stewardess. This flight marked the formal launch of a profession that would come to define commercial air travel for the rest of the century.

Church, a registered nurse and licensed pilot, had approached Boeing Air Transport executives in late 1929 with a bold proposal: that trained nurses be employed to serve passengers, administer basic first aid, and calm anxious fliers during an era when air travel was viewed as dangerous and physically taxing. Airline executives, initially skeptical, granted her a three-month trial. She recruited seven other registered nurses to join her, and together these eight women — soon dubbed the 'Original Eight' — became the first flight attendants in history.

This inaugural flight required grueling physical duties beyond passenger care: attendants had to help load luggage, bolt down wicker seats, and even assist with refueling stops, all while wearing specially designed green wool uniforms. The success of the trial proved so popular with passengers that other airlines quickly adopted the practice, permanently establishing the role of the stewardess — and later, the flight attendant — as a fixture of commercial aviation, forever changing the passenger experience and opening a new professional pathway for women in the skies.