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(CNN) - Delta flies from Salt Lake City to Houston every day, but a recent trip was a bit different, full of girls who received a backstage lesson about aviation.
The airline took 120 girls between the ages of 12 and 18 to NASA's Johnson Space Center last week for International Girls' Day in Aviation. The event was designed to encourage more women to enter the field dominated by men, Delta said in a statement.
The girls, who come from the STEM schools in the area (Science Technology Engineering Math), saw women operate all aspects of their flight, Delta said. The plane had a pilot and a fully female flight crew, female ramp agents and gate agents on the ground, and women in the control tower giving instructions to the pilots.
Students toured NASA's Mission Control and had lunch with astronaut and aerospace engineer Jeanette Epps.
“We know that representation is important. At Delta, we believe it must be seen to be so, ”said Beth Poole, general manager of pilot development, who started the program in 2015.“ We are appropriating to improve gender diversity by exposing girls at an early age and providing a base for pilots in the Delta cabin in 10 years to inspire generations of women who follow them. ”
Delta says that 5% of its pilots are women and 7.4% of the staff hired in the last four years are women.
Girls' Aviation Day was a worldwide effort, and organizers say more than 20,000 people participated in the United States, Canada and Australia, as well as in countries in Africa, Asia and Europe.
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