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After more than 41 years at United Airlines, Captain Chresten Wilson has reached a milestone no woman has ever achieved before.

She is now the most senior pilot at United Airlines—the first woman to hold the No. 1 spot on the airline’s seniority list in its nearly 100-year history.

Wilson joined United in 1983 at just 22 years old and went on to fly an estimated 12 million miles across more than 100 countries, spending decades commanding widebody aircraft around the world.

Today, she flies the Boeing 787 Dreamliner between San Francisco, Australia and New Zealand.

The achievement is even more remarkable considering women make up only about 10% of commercial airline pilots in the United States.

Her time at the top will be brief. Mandatory retirement rules mean she’ll leave United next year at age 65, bringing to a close a career that spanned almost half of the airline’s first century.

Looking back, Wilson says she hopes her story proves that the dream is possible for the next generation of pilots.

Do you think we’ll see more women reach the top of airline seniority lists over the next 20 years?

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