{"id":2286,"date":"2026-02-14T06:03:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-14T11:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/va\/?page_id=2286"},"modified":"2026-02-16T19:39:23","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T00:39:23","slug":"mary-bush-shipko","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/va\/meetings-events\/events\/archived-events\/vfn-conference-2026\/speakers\/mary-bush-shipko\/","title":{"rendered":"Mary Bush Shipko"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2345 alignright img-fluid\" src=\"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/va\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/139\/2026\/02\/shipko-young-194x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"194\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/va\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/139\/2026\/02\/shipko-young-194x300.jpg 194w, https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/va\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/139\/2026\/02\/shipko-young-300x463.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/va\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/139\/2026\/02\/shipko-young.jpg 324w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 194px) 100vw, 194px\" \/>\u00a0 Mary Bush Shipko<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWomen Airline Pilots 50-Year Changes\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Women airline pilots, celebrating our pioneers and inspiring young women today. Learn about the early woman airline pilots, the planes they flew, and what inspired them to become pilots.\u00a0 Learn about the changes over the last 50 years.\u00a0 Find out about today\u2019s opportunities, programs, flight training, and more.\u00a0 The presentation is both entertaining and informative.<\/p>\n<p><strong>About Mary<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Aviation Pioneer and author Mary Bush Shipko was among the first women airline pilots in the country.\u00a0 She began her flying career in 1964 in South Florida.\u00a0 She was hired in May of 1976\u00a0 as the first woman Airline pilot for Hughes Air West, owned by the colorful aviator Howard Hughes.\u00a0 Mary received her airline transport rating and DC-3 type rating in November 1974.\u00a0 She retired from Delta.\u00a0 Today, she speaks around the country, inspiring young women to become airline pilots.<\/p>\n<p>Mary Bush was born into an aviation family in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 1949. From the time she was a toddler, she hung around the airport, and she started her formal flight training just before her 16th birthday. She flew a variety of aircraft out of both Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International and Miami International Airports, in the Northwest corner, famously known as \u201cCockroach Corner\u201d and \u201cCorrosion Corner.\u201d Mary flew World War II transport planes, including the Constellation and DC-6, to many exotic destinations.<\/p>\n<p>Through her experiences, she brings an inspiring perspective on overcoming barriers, embracing opportunities, and leading with courage and support from family.\u00a0 \u00a0She has rebuilt her life and found joy and happiness. Her story of courage and overcoming setbacks is sure to inspire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mary Bush Shipko, Aviation Pioneer and Speaker, a trailblazer in aviation history and one of the first women pilots to fly for a major commercial airline, Hughes Airwest. Her groundbreaking career helped open doors for women in aviation and stands as a testament to perseverance, leadership, and determination.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2287,"parent":2214,"menu_order":9,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"kp-content-permissions":[],"class_list":["post-2286","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2286"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2346,"href":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2286\/revisions\/2346"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2214"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"kp-content-permissions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.narfe.org\/va\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/kp-content-permissions?post=2286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}