If the women who founded the Women’s Suffrage Association 61 years to the day earlier could see Ellen Church on board the Boeing airliner, what would they say? On the one hand,  Church always had a passion for flying and had gone to school to get her pilot’s training. On the other hand, she was not on the Boeing that day as a pilot, but as a “sky girl.” The airline was not about to give a woman the task of piloting a plane, but they did like her other idea, of having nurses like her aboard.

On this day, May 15, 1930, Ellen Church became the first the world’s first airline stewardess, aboard a Boeing Air Transport (the precursor to the modern United Airlines) flight from Oakland, California, to Chicago, Illinois.

BAT sensed great PR potential in bringing nurses on board the plane, to soothe and comfort the passengers when air travel was still considered a dangerous experience. Requirements for sky girls were quite strict: under 25, no taller than 5-feet-4, and no more than 115 pounds. In addition to being a registered nurse, of course. At the same time, the girls were still expected to load the luggage, help with mechanical maintenance, and even push planes back into the hangar.