Jill E. Brown (born 1950) is a retired American pilot, who is the first

African-American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa. ...

woman to become a pilot for a major American passenger airline.

Early life and education

Jill Elaine Brown was born to Gilbert and Elaine Brown in 1950 in

Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It borders the states of Virginia to its south, West Virginia to its west, Pennsylvania to its north, and Delaware to its east ...

. By the age of 11, she had begun driving a

forklift A forklift (also called industrial truck, lift truck, jitney, hi-lo, fork truck, fork hoist, and forklift truck) is a powered industrial truck used to lift and move materials over short distances. The forklift was developed in the early 20th c ...

at her father's construction company, and at the age of 17 joined her other family members in taking flying lessons. She was the first of her family to earn her pilot's licence, with her first solo flight taking place in a

Piper J-3 Cub The Piper J-3 Cub is an American light aircraft that was built between 1938 and 1947 by Piper Aircraft. The aircraft has a simple, lightweight design which gives it good low-speed handling properties and short-field performance. The Cub is Pi ...

. She then began flying the family owned

Piper PA-28 Cherokee The Piper PA-28 Cherokee is a family of two-seat or four-seat light aircraft built by Piper Aircraft and designed for flight training, air taxi and personal use.Plane and Pilot: ''1978 Aircraft Directory'', pages 62–64. Werner & Werner Corp, ...

, named the ''Little Golden Hawk''. After attending

Arundel High School Arundel High School is a public high school located in Gambrills, Maryland, a suburb of Anne Arundel County. The school is part of the Anne Arundel County Public School system, and is the primary high school for Gambrills and portions of the ...

, she went to the

University of Maryland The University of Maryland, College Park (University of Maryland, UMD, or simply Maryland) is a public land-grant research university in College Park, Maryland, United States. Founded in 1856, UMD is the flagship institution of the Univ ...

, where she studied home economics at the suggestion of her mother.

Career

Afterwards, she began working as a teacher but decided to pursue flying as a career, joining the

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

in 1974 for flight training. Brown was the first African-American woman to undergo the training. Her admittance, and her swearing in by

Tuskegee Airman The Tuskegee Airmen were a group of primarily African American military pilots (fighter and bomber) and airmen who fought in World War II. They formed the 332nd Fighter Group and the 477th Bombardment Group (Medium) of the United States Arm ...

Spann Watson Spann Watson (August 14, 1916 – April 15, 2010) was an American military aviator and civil servant who served with the Tuskegee Airmen during World War II. He flew over 30 missions in North Africa, Italy and Southern Europe. In March 2007, Watso ...

was heavily covered in the African-American media. She disliked being in the military, and left with an honourable discharge after six months. Brown admitted that she couldn't "keep her mouth shut" and made some major mistakes. She felt humiliated when she left, and initially refused to leave her home. She convinced Warren H. Wheeler of

Wheeler Airlines Wheeler Airlines was the operating name of Wheeler Flying Service (WHAA), the first black-owned airline certificated in the US by the FAA, which also helped integrate the pilots at major US air carriers by qualifying a large number of black pilots ...

to give her a job, initially as a ticket-counter clark but Brown as Wheeler had no pilot vacancies. Eventually she worked her way into a pilot's position. From her private hours and working at Wheeler, she managed to amass the 1,200 flying hours required to fly for a major airline. In 1978, she joined

Texas International Airlines Texas International Airlines Inc. was a United States local service carrier, known from 1940 until 1947 as Aviation Enterprises, until 1969 as Trans-Texas Airways (TTA), and as Texas International Airlines until 1982, when it merged with Contine ...

as a pilot, becoming the first female African-American pilot for a major US airline. However, she felt she was being used for publicity purposes by the airline. She left Texas after a year, joining the cargo carrier

Zantop International Airlines Zantop International Airlines, Inc. was a United States charter operator, originally uncertificated by the Civil Aeronautics Board (CAB), the now defunct Federal agency that, at the time, tightly regulated almost all US air transport. ZIA escape ...

, and worked there until 1985. In 1990, she filed a lawsuit against

United Airlines United Airlines, Inc. is a Major airlines of the United States, major airline in the United States headquartered in Chicago, Chicago, Illinois that operates an extensive domestic and international route network across the United States and six ...

for refusing to hire her on three occasions, but the case was found in favor of the airline even after an appeal.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Jill E. 1950 births Living people People from Baltimore United States Naval Test Pilot School alumni University of Maryland, Baltimore alumni African-American women aviators American women aviators African-American aviators American women commercial aviators American commercial aviators 21st-century African-American people 21st-century African-American women Aviators from Maryland 20th-century African-American people 20th-century African-American women