page_title: Emily Howell Warner
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: Emily Howell Warner / Early life
caption_attribution_description: English: Aerial view of the old Denver Stapleton Airport. Looking from East to the West, showing Runways 26L and 26R, R35, and the Terminal Building with Concourses A, B, &amp; C.
context_page_description: Emily Howell Warner was an American airline pilot and the first woman captain of a scheduled US airline.
  In 1973, Warner was the first woman pilot to be hired by a scheduled US airline since Helen Richey was hired as a co-pilot in 1934. In 1976 Warner was the first woman to become a US airline captain.
  Her career has been recognized by multiple halls of fame, including the National Aviation Hall of Fame and National Women’s Hall of Fame. Her pilot’s uniform is on display at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum.
  In addition to piloting, Warner was a flight school manager in Denver, Colorado. She was a flight instructor and FAA designated flight examiner holding multiple ratings. She flew more than 21,000 flight hours and performed more than 3,000 check rides and evaluations over her career. Warner died in 2020 from complications of a fall and Alzheimer's disease.
context_section_description: Emily Howell was born on October 30, 1939, and attended Holy Family High School in Colorado. Warner was interested in airplanes as a child. After graduating high school she looked into becoming a flight attendant.
  At seventeen, she decided on a career in piloting after her first trip on an airplane. She was allowed to sit in the cockpit of a plane flying her home after a trip away from Denver. Warner said, “The pilot could see how excited I was and he encouraged me to take flying lessons. I replied: ‘Can girls do that?’”
  She started flying in 1958, after getting the approval of her parents for lessons. The lessons cost thirteen dollars per week at a time that she had a thirty-eight dollar per week paycheck. She sometimes worked fourteen hours a day, with a morning flight, a full-time office job, and an evening flight. She obtained her private pilot license and a job as a flying traffic reporter within a year.
caption: Stapleton Airport as seen from the air in 1966. This is where Emily Howell Warner took flying lessons and was her base of employment for decades.
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