Milwaukee, Wis. — On October 5th, young women participated in the International Girls in Aviation program providing them with an introduction to aviation careers to include airport operations, air traffic control, airline operations and the science of flight. Fifty-three girls and young women between the ages of 8 and 17 years old participated in the program at the Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport. Youth traveled from southeastern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois to participate. The Southeastern Wisconsin Chapter of Women in Aviation planned and sponsored the event as a desire for “our local girls to see there are exciting careers available to them as engineers, astronauts, pilots, dispatchers, air traffic controllers, and dozens of other jobs within the aviation community.”
STARBASE Wisconsin staff provided instruction on flight simulators teaching them to land a single engine Cessna 172 aircraft at Mitchell International Airport. Youth also learned to fly a route from Milwaukee to the Racine and Waukesha airports experiencing navigation and map reading. The young women also participated in tours of an Air Wisconsin Airlines aircraft and the Milwaukee Air Traffic Control Tower. Question and answer sessions with female aviation professionals took place during the event, as well as, an aviation scavenger hunt around the airport concourse experiencing airport operations and local aviation history.
