Sisterhood in Our VT Sky: Ninety-Nines, Modern Rosies, & Our Shared Mission

Written By Beth White

Attending the Ninety-Nines International Conference in Burlington, Vermont felt like coming home to a global sisterhood of aviators. Our WOMEN BUILD PLANES team had the honor of presenting our work and sharing how our multigenerational crew of “Modern Rosies” is changing the face of aviation at Franklin County State Airport and beyond.

We spent the week in community—reconnecting with old friends and meeting new sisters. The conference opened with our dear friend Colonel Laura Caputo, whose powerful message on leadership, mentorship, and taking bold steps toward what we love and believe in resonated deeply with our team.

We were proud to hear from our friend Bram Kleppner as he shared stories of his great-aunt Amelia Earhart and his grandmother Muriel and eloquently wove legacy into our shared future.

We cheered for our Katahdin Ninety-Nines friend, Casey Raymond, as she spoke about her journey, her love of seaplanes, and her commitment to igniting the spark in others—and then celebrated again when she appeared on the cover of The Ninety-Nines magazine the following month. We were glad she chose to stay an extra night in Vermont to spend a full day working side by side with our team in the hangar.

A highlight for our young builders came with a visit to BETA Technologies, where they toured the incredible forty-acre net-zero manufacturing facility and learned about everything from 3D printing to batteries to building with composite materials.

And some of our team even “flew” the ALIA electric aircraft through BETA’s VR simulator—having an unforgettable glimpse into the future of flight that connected their hands-on work in the hangar with cutting-edge innovation in our own backyard!

At Sky Mart, we raised funds for WOMEN BUILD PLANES with our aviation-themed jewelry and Rosie bandanas. One of the most meaningful connections of the week came through meeting our beloved friend Margaret Wint, who, inspired by our mission, went on to later sew more than 100 Rosie bandanas by hand to fuel our future fundraising efforts. Her craftsmanship, generosity, and belief in our builders now travels with each of these Modern Rosie bandanas.

The week culminated in a humbling and joyful moment as our Pilot-in-Command, Beth White, received the International Award of Achievement for Contributions to Aviation. Nominated by the Eastern New England Ninety-Nines, this recognition honored not only Beth’s journey as an education possibilitarian, breast cancer survivor, mentor, and aviatrix, but the entire Habitat for Aviation community of youth, grannies, mentors, and partners who say “yes” to learning by doing. We left Burlington grateful, energized, and even more committed to opening doors so that women and girls everywhere see, without question, that they can BUILD, FLY, and FIX airplanes.

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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Discussing Our Future Building Plans with VTRANS