TAKEOFF!

by Bonnie Tiburzi ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 4, 1984

It was only yesterday--1973--that Bonnie Tiburzi, hair down to her waist, became the first woman in a major airline's cockpit: ""an experiment,"" a curiosity, a worrisome unknown quantity. ""Would you please turn around and do your job,"" flight engineer Bonnie told copilot Larry, intervening in an emergency. Telling her story (with, it appears, very professional help), Tiburzi is breezy, forthright, humanly and professionally convincing. ""Flying was a family occupation"": Dad had been a TWA pilot, Bonnie grew up around local/charter Tiburzi Airways, she could fly planes ""theoretically"" at eleven or twelve, she never wanted to be anything but a pilot--""an airline pilot,"" she'd tell people, ""just like my father was."" But Tiburzi Airways had failed; there'd be no free flying lessons, never mind no precedent. Years of earning lessons, of bartering her services for training and flight-time follow--in Florida and, enterprisingly, in Europe. At the local airfield, she's one of the gang; as a flight instructor, she sees her students get ahead. But how to even apply for an airline job stumps her--until a Harper's Bazaar puff (""about the jet-setter who. . . dreamed of flying for the airlines"") brings FAA officials' advice to inquire, send applications. . . and, from American Airlines, a response. So there she is in Dallas--being interviewed, taking exams and a physical: ""painfully self-conscious,"" ""soaring with happiness."" Once accepted (the youngest also, at 24, of a class of 214), she gets tougher training and testing, no ""special allowances"" except for her uniform (a somewhat overworked topic). Graduating, she gets extra ""checkrides"" too--but also a lot of welcomes (including a sign-change, at O'Hare: MALE CREW MEMBERS ONLY. . . AND BONNIE TOO!). Tiburzi conveys the cockpit teamwork, the drudgery and exhilaration; she tells of the occasional appalled passanger, the general cabin unease when a female voice announces/explains a turbulence; she recounts a failed marriage to a fellow-pilot (who wanted her to earn money--and be home); she talks about safety--in unusual anecdotal detail. And, yes, she talks about sexual harassment (she had little, other women pilots had more) and cockpit romance. After the first, ice-breaking AA flights, a bit of a letdown--but still lively and informative enough to satisfy both airline-flying and woman-pilot curiosity.

Pub Date: May 4, 1984

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Crown

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 1984

Categories: NONFICTION