Seeing Our Sheroes in Aviation for Women

Written By Beth White

When the latest issue of Aviation for Women landed and we saw so many badass women from BETA Technologies featured, our whole crew lit up. These are women we know, learn from, and admire—leaders and maintainers who show up every day to push the future of aviation forward with electric aircraft, serious technical chops, and grounded, humble confidence. Seeing their stories in print felt like the world catching up to what we already see in the hangar and on the flightline: women leading at nearly every level of this industry.

For our WOMEN BUILD PLANES team, their visibility matters. Our young builders recognize names and faces in those pages and can say, “I’ve met her. I’ve seen her work. I can do this too.” The article does more than celebrate individual achievements; it traces a clear line between innovation, mentorship, and opportunity—right here in Vermont. We feel lucky to share a home state and a community with these women, and even luckier that our next generation of Modern Rosies gets to see their role models building, flying, fixing, and electrifying the future of aviation.

We were honored and humbled to get a shout-out by our beloved Rayan El-Kotob, an esteemed friend and mentor.

Beth White

Education Possibilitarian, Artist, Writer, Doula, Mentor, Aviatrix, Breast Cancer Survivor, Pilot-in-Command at Habitat for Aviation


In the spring of 2022, Beth White emerged from a 10-month battle with breast cancer with an idea: to create an apprenticeship program at Franklin County State Airport where youth work alongside adult mentors servicing conventional and electric aircraft. A pilot and airplane mechanic apprentice herself, and with family roots in the trades, Habitat for Aviation provides an taxilane for world learning opportunities for youth and adults who love to work with their hands to enter the FAA’s apprenticeship certification track. Each day she puts systems in place that make real John Dewey’s philosophy that we “learn best what we live” – a deep throughline from her time at Antioch University New England and as Regional Director for Big Picture Learning. Each learning experience is grounded in relationships, relevance, and practice. In October, 2023, Habitat for Aviation launched its Women Build Planes program, where an all-female team of Modern Day Rosies is building an airplane at Franklin County Airport, in northwestern Vermont, to show folks everywhere that despite the fact that only 2.6% of airplane mechanics are female, women BUILD, FLY, and FIX airplanes.

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