Literary Aviatrix: The Power of Story - Women in Aviation – Details, episodes & analysis

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Pioneering airline pilot Lynn Rippelmeyer reflects on her extraordinary journey from being hired as a TWA stewardess in the early 1970s to becoming one of the first women to fly the Boeing 747, and later retiring from United Airlines after a career shaped both by deregulation, mergers, and furloughs, and by generosity, unexpected opportunities, and adventure.

We talk about her two-part memoir, beginning with Life Takes Wings, which traces her path from the cabin to the flight deck at a time when women were told — explicitly — that they didn’t belong there. Lynn shares unforgettable stories from the cockpit, including a laugh-out-loud reading involving a seeing-eye dog, Florida mud, and an entire airport watching it unfold. In Life Takes Flight, the adventures continue as she pursues her flying career, takes a break to raise a family, and then returns to flying as a single mom. 

This episode also explores:

• The transition from “stewardess” to “flight attendant” and what that shift meant culturally
• Being told women couldn’t fly “the heavies” — and proving otherwise
• The mentors (and gatekeepers) who shaped her career
• How discovering the WASP later in life reframed everything she’d been told
• Why writing her story became a responsibility, not just a creative act
• How her flying career ultimately led to humanitarian work in Honduras and the founding of a nonprofit

Lynn’s story sits at the intersection of aviation, feminism, labor history, and storytelling — and it’s one every aspiring aviator (and writer) should hear.

Buy the books directly from Lynn to support her non-profit Roatan Support Effort. https://lynnrippelmeyer.com/purchase-now

Did you know you can support your local independent bookshop and me by shopping through my Bookshop.org affiliate links on my website? If a book is available on Bookshop.org, you'll find a link to it on the book page. By shopping through the Literary Aviatrix website a small portion of the sale goes to support the content you love, at no additional cost to you. https://literaryaviatrix.com/shop-all-books/

Thanks so much for listening!

• Stay up to date on book releases, author events, and Aviatrix Book Club discussion dates with the Literary Aviatrix Newsletter. 
• Visit the Literary Aviatrix website to find over 600 books featuring women in aviation in all genres for all ages. 
• Become a Literary Aviatrix Patron and help amplify the voices of women in aviation. 
• Follow me on social media, join the book club, and find all of the things on the Literary Aviatrix linkt.ree. 

Blue skies, happy reading, and happy listening!

-Liz Booker

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If you love daring women, vintage airplanes, and real-world adventure, you’re going to love this one. Pilot and author Tracey Curtis-Taylor shares her journey from a $15 introductory flight in Canada to flying her restored 1942 Stearman across Africa, from UK to Australia, and across the United States. We talk about her inspirations — Lady Mary Heath, Amy Johnson, Out of Africa — and her experiences confronting backlash in modern aviation. 

Did you know you can support your local independent bookshop and me by shopping through my Bookshop.org affiliate links on my website? If a book is available on Bookshop.org, you'll find a link to it on the book page. By shopping through the Literary Aviatrix website a small portion of the sale goes to support the content you love, at no additional cost to you. https://literaryaviatrix.com/shop-all-books/

Thanks so much for listening!

• Stay up to date on book releases, author events, and Aviatrix Book Club discussion dates with the Literary Aviatrix Newsletter. 
• Visit the Literary Aviatrix website to find over 600 books featuring women in aviation in all genres for all ages. 
• Become a Literary Aviatrix Patron and help amplify the voices of women in aviation. 
• Follow me on social media, join the book club, and find all of the things on the Literary Aviatrix linkt.ree. 

Blue skies, happy reading, and happy listening!

-Liz Booker

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In this interview I talk with author Leona Cobham about the latest in her middle grade chapter book series featuringa cast of vintage British aircraft characters, Airplane Adventures Flying Circus: Above and Beyond. I first interviewed Leona in 2023, and we talked briefly about her grandfather, Sir Alan Cobham and his pioneering contributions to air-to-air refueling. We talk a little more about his advocacy for the advancement of aviation in this conversation. Check out the original interview, and a clip of Sir Alan Cobham himself from the 1930s in the links below:

https://literaryaviatrix.com/leona-cobham/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7eu7rYMS8s&list=PLDIDPYt9Z0z6KZF6lDqTNx3iL0FSNRt_Y&index=4

Buy the books: 

Book 1: Flying Circus Takes to the Skies

Book 2: Through Thick and Thin

Book 3: Above and Beyond

Did you know you can support your local independent bookshop and me by shopping through my Bookshop.org affiliate links on my website? If a book is available on Bookshop.org, you'll find a link to it on the book page. By shopping through the Literary Aviatrix website a small portion of the sale goes to support the content you love, at no additional cost to you. https://literaryaviatrix.com/shop-all-books/

Thanks so much for listening!

• Stay up to date on book releases, author events, and Aviatrix Book Club discussion dates with the Literary Aviatrix Newsletter. 
• Visit the Literary Aviatrix website to find over 600 books featuring women in aviation in all genres for all ages. 
• Become a Literary Aviatrix Patron and help amplify the voices of women in aviation. 
• Follow me on social media, join the book club, and find all of the things on the Literary Aviatrix linkt.ree. 

Blue skies, happy reading, and happy listening!

-Liz Booker

Send us Fan Mail

We’re jumping ahead in the process in this excerpt from my interview with book publicist Jennifer Coburn. Once you publish your book, you’re probably going to want to sell it. Some publishers will include a budget for book launch promotion, and others won’t. In this clip, Jennifer, who is the author of eight of her own books, worked as Robing Kardon’s publicist for the launch of her Flygirl series. Jenn tells us what that process and timeline look like, and how much it might cost. All things you’ll want to think about when envisioning the full picture of what writing and publishing your book looks like. You can find the full interview in The Aviatrix Writers Room on my website or YouTube Channel from August of 2021. 

Did you know you can support your local independent bookshop and me by shopping through my Bookshop.org affiliate links on my website? If a book is available on Bookshop.org, you'll find a link to it on the book page. By shopping through the Literary Aviatrix website a small portion of the sale goes to support the content you love, at no additional cost to you. https://literaryaviatrix.com/shop-all-books/

Thanks so much for listening!

• Stay up to date on book releases, author events, and Aviatrix Book Club discussion dates with the Literary Aviatrix Newsletter. 
• Visit the Literary Aviatrix website to find over 600 books featuring women in aviation in all genres for all ages. 
• Become a Literary Aviatrix Patron and help amplify the voices of women in aviation. 
• Follow me on social media, join the book club, and find all of the things on the Literary Aviatrix linkt.ree. 

Blue skies, happy reading, and happy listening!

-Liz Booker

Send us Fan Mail

In this excerpt from my interview with Kathy Mexted about her book, Australian Women Pilots, she talks about the battle that Deborah Lawrie fought in the Australian courts to be able to fly for Ansett Airlines in 1980. 

Did you know you can support your local independent bookshop and me by shopping through my Bookshop.org affiliate links on my website? If a book is available on Bookshop.org, you'll find a link to it on the book page. By shopping through the Literary Aviatrix website a small portion of the sale goes to support the content you love, at no additional cost to you. https://literaryaviatrix.com/shop-all-books/

Thanks so much for listening!

• Stay up to date on book releases, author events, and Aviatrix Book Club discussion dates with the Literary Aviatrix Newsletter. 
• Visit the Literary Aviatrix website to find over 600 books featuring women in aviation in all genres for all ages. 
• Become a Literary Aviatrix Patron and help amplify the voices of women in aviation. 
• Follow me on social media, join the book club, and find all of the things on the Literary Aviatrix linkt.ree. 

Blue skies, happy reading, and happy listening!

-Liz Booker

Send us Fan Mail

In honor of the Australian Women Pilots Association conference, and my visit to meet the author this week, here is Kathy Mexted reading about Patricia Toole, who was the inspiration for her book, Australian Women Pilots: Amazing True Stories of Women in the Air. 

Did you know you can support your local independent bookshop and me by shopping through my Bookshop.org affiliate links on my website? If a book is available on Bookshop.org, you'll find a link to it on the book page. By shopping through the Literary Aviatrix website a small portion of the sale goes to support the content you love, at no additional cost to you. https://literaryaviatrix.com/shop-all-books/

Thanks so much for listening!

• Stay up to date on book releases, author events, and Aviatrix Book Club discussion dates with the Literary Aviatrix Newsletter. 
• Visit the Literary Aviatrix website to find over 600 books featuring women in aviation in all genres for all ages. 
• Become a Literary Aviatrix Patron and help amplify the voices of women in aviation. 
• Follow me on social media, join the book club, and find all of the things on the Literary Aviatrix linkt.ree. 

Blue skies, happy reading, and happy listening!

-Liz Booker

Send us Fan Mail

As military members, and/or as pilots, we are not accustomed to exposing our emotions, but in order for our stories to resonate with an audience, we need to make an emotional connection. Author Adam Sikes and I commiserate.

Check out Adam's debut espionage thriller novel, Landslide. 

Did you know you can support your local independent bookshop and me by shopping through my Bookshop.org affiliate links on my website? If a book is available on Bookshop.org, you'll find a link to it on the book page. By shopping through the Literary Aviatrix website a small portion of the sale goes to support the content you love, at no additional cost to you. https://literaryaviatrix.com/shop-all-books/

Thanks so much for listening!

• Stay up to date on book releases, author events, and Aviatrix Book Club discussion dates with the Literary Aviatrix Newsletter. 
• Visit the Literary Aviatrix website to find over 600 books featuring women in aviation in all genres for all ages. 
• Become a Literary Aviatrix Patron and help amplify the voices of women in aviation. 
• Follow me on social media, join the book club, and find all of the things on the Literary Aviatrix linkt.ree. 

Blue skies, happy reading, and happy listening!

-Liz Booker

Send us Fan Mail

In this excerpt from my interview with historian and author Amy Shira Teitel, she talks about why she wrote the book Fighting for Space: Two Pilots and their Historic Battle for Female Space Flight. 

Did you know you can support your local independent bookshop and me by shopping through my Bookshop.org affiliate links on my website? If a book is available on Bookshop.org, you'll find a link to it on the book page. By shopping through the Literary Aviatrix website a small portion of the sale goes to support the content you love, at no additional cost to you. https://literaryaviatrix.com/shop-all-books/

Thanks so much for listening!

• Stay up to date on book releases, author events, and Aviatrix Book Club discussion dates with the Literary Aviatrix Newsletter. 
• Visit the Literary Aviatrix website to find over 600 books featuring women in aviation in all genres for all ages. 
• Become a Literary Aviatrix Patron and help amplify the voices of women in aviation. 
• Follow me on social media, join the book club, and find all of the things on the Literary Aviatrix linkt.ree. 

Blue skies, happy reading, and happy listening!

-Liz Booker

Send us Fan Mail

 In this excerpt of my interview with Clare Mulley, she talks about how she came to write the book The Women Who Flew for Hitler: A True Story of Soaring Ambition and Searing Rivalry, which is a narrative non-fiction dual biography of Hannah Reistch and Melitta Schiller.

Did you know you can support your local independent bookshop and me by shopping through my Bookshop.org affiliate links on my website? If a book is available on Bookshop.org, you'll find a link to it on the book page. By shopping through the Literary Aviatrix website a small portion of the sale goes to support the content you love, at no additional cost to you. https://literaryaviatrix.com/shop-all-books/

Thanks so much for listening!

• Stay up to date on book releases, author events, and Aviatrix Book Club discussion dates with the Literary Aviatrix Newsletter. 
• Visit the Literary Aviatrix website to find over 600 books featuring women in aviation in all genres for all ages. 
• Become a Literary Aviatrix Patron and help amplify the voices of women in aviation. 
• Follow me on social media, join the book club, and find all of the things on the Literary Aviatrix linkt.ree. 

Blue skies, happy reading, and happy listening!

-Liz Booker

Send us Fan Mail

In this excerpt from my Writers' Room discussion with Erin Seidemann, she talks about her writing journey, shares her thoughts on memoir, and talks about the challenges of getting published traditionally. 

Did you know you can support your local independent bookshop and me by shopping through my Bookshop.org affiliate links on my website? If a book is available on Bookshop.org, you'll find a link to it on the book page. By shopping through the Literary Aviatrix website a small portion of the sale goes to support the content you love, at no additional cost to you. https://literaryaviatrix.com/shop-all-books/

Thanks so much for listening!

• Stay up to date on book releases, author events, and Aviatrix Book Club discussion dates with the Literary Aviatrix Newsletter. 
• Visit the Literary Aviatrix website to find over 600 books featuring women in aviation in all genres for all ages. 
• Become a Literary Aviatrix Patron and help amplify the voices of women in aviation. 
• Follow me on social media, join the book club, and find all of the things on the Literary Aviatrix linkt.ree. 

Blue skies, happy reading, and happy listening!

-Liz Booker