United Airlines will roll out the red carpet for local community girls at five United Airlines locations across the United States on September 23, 2017, as part of the Women in Aviation International (WAI) Girls in Aviation Day events. Through a variety of experiences and activities, United Airlines will introduce these girls to the excitement of a major airport while they learn the various career possibilities open to them in aviation.

“These lucky girls will get a behind-the-scenes view of the operations of a major airline at a large airport,” says WAI President Dr. Peggy Chabrian. “But the bonus is that through United’s efforts, the girls will meet and get to know the people who keep an airline running from different departments.”

The Women in Aviation International Connect event in Dayton, Ohio, on September 29-30, 2017, offers a weekend jam-packed with aviation history. The two-day, Friday and Saturday gathering will be held at the Marriott Hotel at the University of Dayton and begins with a tour of the Dayton Aviation Heritage National Historical Park sites, including Hawthorn Hill, the Wright family mansion; Carillon Historical Park; Wright-Dunbar Interpretive Center and the Wright Cycle Company; and the Huffman-Prairie Flying Field, the location of Wright Brothers’ test flights.

The tour of the Dayton aviation sites is followed by a tour of the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force. As an alternate, attendees may participate in a tour of the GE Aviation's EPISCenter located on the campus of University of Dayton. This $51 million, 138,000 square foot facility is where researchers and students work side-by-side with GE Aviation scientists and engineers to create new advanced electrical power technologies for aircraft and cars.

Participants in Women in Aviation International’s (WAI) Girls in Aviation Day will go home with a new skill: how to read a sectional chart. Through a generous donation from Sporty’s, thousands of instructional sectional charts will be distributed to WAI’s international network of more than 100 chapters. This hands-on teaching tool will be used with thousands of girls ages 8 to 17 who attend one of the many local Girls in Aviation Day events, scheduled for September 23, 2017 all over the globe.

Start applying for 103 scholarships!

At WAI’s 29th Annual International Women in Aviation Conference, 103 individual scholarships equaling $569,965 will be awarded. As is the tradition, these scholarships are available for both flight training and scholastic funding with specific scholarships earmarked for nearly every aspect of the aviation and aerospace community.

The scholarships will be awarded during WAI’s conference, held next year in Reno, Nevada, from March 22-24, 2018. Additional scholarships will be added in the coming months, and the total value of awarded scholarships typically reaches more than $600,000 annually.