Amelia Reid

Who was Amelia Reid?

Amelia Reid was a pilot, flight instructor, businesswoman, airshow performer and airport advocate.

In 1960 Reid founded Amelia Reid Aviation, a flight school at Reid-Hillview Airport in San Jose, California. She ran the business out of her 1959 Ford and later, two trailers. She mortgaged her home and constructed a permanent hangar and office building in 1967, from which she operated her flight school for the rest of her life.

Reid logged over 55,000 flight hours and trained more than 4,000 pilots. She flew in countless airshows, her last at age 75 in a Cessna Aerobat. She won the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association Lawrence P. Sharples Award and was inducted into the National Association of Flight Instructors Hall of Fame.

Reid's students include noted airshow performer Sean D. Tucker, aviation author and speaker Rod Machado, aerospace engineer and author H. Paul Shuch, and Jason Dahl, the captain on United flight 93 on September 11, 2001.