Sylvie Loisel-Labaste is the first pilot-woman at Airbus: "I entered at Airbus in 2000 as a flight test engineer. My first position as engineer was at the centre of test-flights in Bretigny sur Orge. Later at Istres I did the school for reception flight-testing personnel and I was the first woman in the EPNER to be graduated.”
Sylvie Loisel-Labaste was in the flight-crew of the first flight of MSN4 last 26/Feb
After her training in the ENAC in Toulouse, Sylvie has followed all the steps as a pilot; in 2003 she qualified to fly all Airbus aircraft. “Since November 2006 I fly the A380, an easy-to-fly aircraft. It is exciting to develop this aircraft by improving every day.”
This young mother of 3 children tries to find a balance between family life, work and life for herself (his favorite sport is swimming): "I am very helped by my husband, and I try to arrange my schedule to be more time with my children; the weekend is sacred.”
Sylvie onboard the A380
Sylvie is focused on a specific area of competence: avionics. She was flying A340-500 (the first woman crew member for a First-Flight at Airbus) and A380 prototypes before joining the first flight of the A350 MSN4 last 26/Feb/2014. She is part of the team that work out the reliability on the auto-pilot, the "third man" onboard, on which the crew relies heavily.
She loves flying her small single-engine aircraft, this time at the controls and not only as flight engineer.
I don't believe she is the only female pilot in Airbus....I've read an article about another one, but I cannot remember the name. And for sure she is also not the only flight test engineer...there was another female FTE on the First Flight of the A320 Sharklet (Sandra Bour-Schaeffer). ;) However: Nice website and always worth to visit!
ReplyDeleteYou are right, the interview where it is said she was the unique pilot-woman in Airbus is from 2007.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.ladepeche.fr/article/2007/03/08/4632-colomiers-journee-de-la-femme-elles-sont-aux-commandes.html
She is not the only female test pilot in Airbus. Marie-Pierre Delaveau-Marot is an Airbus test pilot and also Isabelle de Montet-Guerin, who is a British flight test pilot. As a female FTE, you have 2 french ones in addition to Sylvie, Sandra Bour-Schaeffer, dedicated to flight physics, and Catherine Schneider, for avionics.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your complete information.
ReplyDelete5 women on the flight test team as pilot or as flight test engineer is an example of the growing presence of women in the aerospace. I will try giving them more and more visibility trought this blog.