Category Archives: Aeronautics

Beatrice Alice Hicks was the first woman engineer to be hired by Western Electric, and co-founder and first president of the Society of Women Engineers. Despite starting her career at a time when engineering was seen as inappropriate choice for women, Hicks held various leadership positions and eventually became the owner of an engineering firm. Hicks also developed a gas density switch that would be used by NASA, including the Apollo moon landing missions.

Kitty O’Brien Joyner joined the NACA, the precursor to NASA, in 1939 as an electrical engineer after graduating from the University of Virginia (UVA). She was the first woman to graduate from UVA’s engineering program and the NACA’s first female engineer. Joyner spent her career working in and managing wind tunnels and supersonic flight research.