Commander Patricia L. Beckman

Commander Trish Beckman, US Navy (retired), currently flies for Boeing Commercial Airplanes Group, Seattle, Washington. She holds FAA licenses as an Aircraft Dispatcher and a Flight Navigator. She flies as a System Operator (similar to flight engineer) for production and engineering test flights of the Boeing 737, and as a Flight Navigator for ferry flights and engineering test flights (737, 767, 777). She has over 4100 flight hours in 71 aircraft types.

Trish spent over 28 years on active duty in the US Navy (8 years enlisted and 20 years as an officer). As a Naval Flight Officer (NFO, or Navigator), she flew in 67 types of aircraft. Her primary aircraft qualifications were in the EC-130Q, F/A-18D, E-6A, S-3A/B, and F-15E. She was the first woman to qualify as a crewmember in the F-15E (1992), and she was the first American woman to qualify as a crewmember in the F/A-18D (1990).

Besides being a graduate of the US Naval Test Pilot School, Trish also instructed there. She holds a BS in Aerospace Engineering (North Carolina State University), an MS in Aeronautical Engineering (Naval Postgraduate School), and a Masters in Business Administration (MBA, Webster University).

Trish is a Past President of Women Military Aviators, Inc. (WMA), and is a founding board member of Women in Aviation, International (WAI). She volunteers as a workshop presenter for Sally Ride Science, at festivals around the country, to encourage girls to pursue careers in math and science.