Barbara Harmer, the First Woman Concorde Pilot

March 25th, 1993 – Barbara Harmer, the first woman Concorde pilot makes her first flight as First Officer of the daily supersonic London-New York route.

Barbara left school at the age of 15 to pursue a career in hairdressing. Five years later she left hairdressing to become an air traffic controller at London Gatwick Airport. At that time, Barbara began studies for a law degree while also commencing flying lessons, gained her Private Pilot Licence, then instructor rating, then her Commercial Pilot Licence (CPL), which she obtained in 1982 before securing a job as a pilot at Genair, a small commuter airline based at Humberside Airport..

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In March 1984, Harmer joined British Caledonian and flew BAC One-Elevens for three years, then McDonnell Douglas DC-10. In 1987, British Caledonian merged with British Airways. At that time, British Airways employed over 3000 pilots, but only 60 of them were women and no woman had ever piloted Concorde.