Bonnie Tiburzi (born August 31, 1948), is an American aviator. In 1973, at age 24, she became the first female pilot forAmerican Airlines and the first female pilot for a major American commercial airline.[1] At the same time she also became the first woman in the world to earn a Flight Engineer rating on a turbo-jet aircraft.
Bonnie Tiburzi Caputo was born Bonnie Linda Tiburzi.[2] She was born August 31, 1948, in Connecticut.[1] Her father was a pilot forScandinavian Airlines SAS and later withTrans World Airlines TWA. After leaving the airline industry August Robert "Gus" Tiburzi owned and operated Tiburzi Airways – a flight school and charter company in Danbury, Connecticut.
Tiburzi began her aviation career flying as a flight instructor and charter pilot. In 1973, at age 24, she became the first female pilot forAmerican Airlines and the first female pilot for a major American commercial airline.[1] She flew as a Captain on the Boeing 727, Boeing 757 and the Boeing 767. In 1986 Tiburzi wrote her autobiography,Takeoff: The Story of America's First Woman Pilot for a Major Airline.[3] She retired from AAL in 1999 after 26 years.
Trustee for the College of Aeronautics from 1990 - 2000.
Created and produced three "Women of Accomplishment" Award Luncheons for the Wings Club, Inc. in New York City from 1981 to 1983. These events honored women from various fields of endeavors - representing an array of important roles filled by women. Recipients included (among others) actressPolly Bergen, race car driverJanet Guthrie, TV anchorwomanJane Pauley, feminist and authorBetty Friedan, RabbiSally Priesand, actress and spokespersonMaureen O'Hara,Moya Lear of Lear Aircraft Company, Television Workshop'sFaith Stewart-Gordon, opera singerAnna Moffo andMuriel Siebert, Superintendent of Banks, New York State.
Tiburzi received the "Chairman's Award for Outstanding Programming Service of the Year".
Created the "Information Bank" - a networking system for the International Society Of Women Airline Pilots to help further the career of future female pilots.
Guest speaker at many schools, colleges, and private clubs including the Federal Aviation Association, the Ninety Nines, the Smithsonian Air&Space Museum and the Wings Club.
Trustee and Tennis Chairperson for the Millbrook Golf and Tennis Club from 1999 - 2001.Board Member of a New York Co-op Building in the 1990s
1984 - Autobiography, "Takeoff" published by Crown Publishing Company
1984 - Researched and co-authored a magazine article with Dr. Jonathan Scher about pregnancy and flying published inMothers Today Magazine.
Wrote thePilot’s Guide to a Perfect Plane Ride for Woman's Day Magazine
Featured inWorking Woman Magazine, Cosmopolitan, Harper's Bazaar, Glamour, Reader's Digest, Gold Coast Pictorial, Good Housekeeping,,Women's Wear Daily,Vogue,Woman's Day and the SmithsonianAir & Space Magazine.
Appeared in books by Henry Holden, Captain Robert Buck, John M. Capozzi, Lisa Yount and Carole S. Briggs - list incomplete.
June Douglas (pilot) Unknown (moderator) Philip Quarles (archivist) (May 1965).WYNC archive recording [Girls who fly: 1965 Angel Derby pilots are told sexism doesn't exist] (Audio).Yanceyville, North Carolina: NYC Municipal ArchivesWNYC Collection. RetrievedFebruary 14, 2015.Annotations: The NEH Preservation Project
Buck, Bob (2005), "Records", in Buck, Bob (ed.),North star over my shoulder: a flying life, New York, New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, pp. 58–60,ISBN9780743262309.
