10/07/2026
"I didn't think there was a snowball's chance in hell that I would get hired," Chresten Wilson said of applying to United Airlines in 1984. She was 22. Pilots were plentiful, the interviews were competitive, and women in airline cockpits were almost nonexistent.
She got the job.
She started as a flight engineer on the DC-10, the third seat in the cockpit, then worked her way through the 737, 747, 757, 767, A320 and 777. Today she is a captain on the Boeing 787, flying out of San Francisco to Australia and New Zealand. She has been a captain for 31 years and has flown roughly 12 million miles.
Airline pilots live by seniority. It decides what you fly, where you fly, when you fly, and whether you get Christmas off. Every pilot at the airline is ranked on one list, and this year, when the pilot ahead of her retired, Wilson moved to the top of it: number 1 of roughly 18,000.
In United's 100-year history, no woman had ever been there.
It comes with a bittersweet edge. Wilson is 64, and federal rules require airline pilots to retire at 65. She reached the summit with about a year left to enjoy it.
She is careful about what it means. "I never set out to be the first," she said. "I just wanted to go fly airplanes and do it to the best of my ability." But she gives credit to the women who came before her and opened the door.
Even today, women make up only about 6 percent of airline pilots.
Her hope is simple. "I just want people to see that there's no limit."
