Breaking barriers: Auburn University's first female aircraft technician
Written by Michaela Yielding for The Auburn Plainsman's print,
Voices of the Loveliest Village
Karlee Pessoney sat nervously in her car, waiting to start her first shift as an aviation technician at Auburn University. Although the 23-year-old spent most of her life working on cars, planes were on a different level. Pessoney had not yet realized that her first day working at the Auburn airport would mean she was the first-ever female aircraft technician for Auburn University.
Aerospace engineering is a rapidly growing career, with the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projecting the job growth of aerospace engineering to 6% by 2032. However, in 2021, of the 137,506 aerospace engineers, only 13.2% were female.
According to the Office of Institutional Research at Auburn University, the total of declared aerospace engineering majors is 458, but only 80 are female. The School of Aviation only has 183 female students out of 880 students currently enrolled.
Pessoney grew up in Athens, Alabama, immersed in a “melting pot” of engineers and mechanics within her family. Athens, which is only 40 minutes from Huntsville, AL allowed Pessoney to grow an interest in the Rocket City.
As a young girl, both sets of her grandparents had big expectations for her future. Her grandparents, who had worked on the Apollo space missions and for the Department of Defense, saw her build with Legos at a young age and knew she’d one day become an engineer.
“When I was little, they’re all like, ‘She’s gonna be an engineer one day. She’s gonna do that one day.’ And because they said that, of course, I was like, ‘Well, I don’t wanna do that,’” Pessoney explained.
On her father’s side, Pessoney’s grandparents came from Texas to Huntsville at the start of the Apollo missions in the 1960s. Her grandfather, a mathematician, and her grandmother, an engineer, both worked for NASA.
Her maternal grandparents moved from Montgomery to Huntsville, and her grandmother was a paralegal while her grandfather worked for the Department of Defense and the Army Corps of Engineers. Most of her family, including her parents, aunts, uncles and cousins attended Auburn University.
Originally, Pessoney attended Calhoun Community College in Huntsville to pursue a criminology degree. Both her mother and grandmother had criminal justice degrees and Pessoney believed she wanted the same degree. Before considering engineering, Pessoney wanted to become a lawyer.
Feeling like she was missing something, Pessoney looked at a course catalog for the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering and learned about the aerospace program. Mechanical engineering always entertained Pessoney, but aerospace engineering intrigued her.
There are two major branches of aerospace engineering, aeronautical and astronautical engineering. Aeronautical engineering focuses on aircraft like planes, jets and propulsion systems while astronautical specializes in spacecraft and satellites. For Pessoney, she’s more interested in aeronautical engineering.
Pessoney wants to be part of the aerospace engineers who help push the airplane industry to utilize hypersonic and supersonic airplanes for commercial use by creating airports and airplanes that can withstand breaking the sound barrier.
At 12, Pessoney found a go-kart frame in a toolshed and saved her allowances to buy a motor from Harbor Freight. Her uncle and mentor Dave helped her learn the foundations of engines and mechanics.
“As I was building, I kind of learned how my motor works and how throttle [works] and everything. And so we just built on this little frame and even though I could never race it, [it helped] when I got older and got into cars.” Pessoney said.
At 16, Pessoney began to work on cars as a side job. At 18, she worked at a car parts store to get a discount on parts.
Pessoney also repaired other people’s cars, drawing on her muscle car hobby to apply her knowledge of working on American cars like Mustangs and Corvettes. With foreign cars, she’d use the knowledge she’d remember from reading manuals to help diagnose the issue.
She had been doing repairs for a few years with her family while working at the auto parts store. At the store she worked at, Karlee bought her current Mustang. “I, myself, have had several Mustangs. I right now have a ‘66 Mustang that I got for $1,000 that I’ve been working on,” Pessoney said.
However, even though Pessoney had an expansive knowledge of American and foreign cars, she still experienced customers who didn’t want her help. She explained that customers would approach her at the car shop and immediately refuse her assistance.
She understood why some would be frustrated, because of the expensive repairs, but for others, she knew their reasoning was based on her gender.
“[They’d say] ‘Go get me a man.’ And I’m like, really? I’m not gonna do that,” Pessoney recounted. “So, either you can go somewhere else or you’re gonna talk to me.” Her male coworkers would back Pessoney up, with them refusing to serve any customers who didn’t want Pessoney’s help.
Hired in January, Pessoney found out through her coworkers that she is the first female aviation technician for Auburn University. She noted that although she feared being an outcast, her coworkers have been extremely helpful and supportive of her.
Instead, the biggest obstacle Pessoney had in her first few months was the change in part terminology. However, after a few weeks, she understood the new terms. “When they would say certain things like magnetos, I didn’t know what magnetos were on a plane because instead, I know like a distributor in a car,” Pessoney explained. “But a distributor in a car is similar to a magneto in a plane.”
Pessoney said there are approximately 15 technicians at the aviation workshop. When she clocks in after classes, she checks whether any students or pilots have submitted “squawks” for the technicians to investigate. Pessoney explained squawks are work orders and are typically submitted if the student or instructor thinks anything about the airplane isn’t up to standard.
After repairing and inspecting any squawks, Pessoney signs off on the plane and sends it back out of the hangar. Pessoney and her team also frequently look over the planes because the constant flying requires timely inspections.
Pessoney explained that one of the main differences between working on cars and planes is the fragility of plane materials.
“Cars are all just like really, really durable. And so, you can take impacts to everything, and you can beat on it and whatever. But with planes, it’s delicate and it’s very unforgiving. So, it has to be perfect until they build it to easily be perfect.” Pessoney explained.
However, she also explained that with planes, those who worked previously on the plane leave logs explaining their process and any standouts of the model.
Although she has never flown a plane, Pessoney hopes to get her private pilot's license soon. Pessoney wants the license so she can test-fly the aircraft she repairs.
In her free time, Pessoney works on muscle cars and does autocross races with her cousins who also go to Auburn. Autocross racing is when competitors race cars on a short course while being timed.
Once graduated, Pessoney hopes to help educate the general public about airplanes. Unlike cars and motorcycles, many don’t understand why planes have certain requirements like disabling all wireless or cellular signals on passenger technology or why plane wings have flaps. She also hopes the public will understand more about the airplane industry.
In the future, Pessoney hopes to live near either Huntsville or Talladega, Alabama. For Huntsville, it’s the closeness to family and job prospects. Pessoney also wants to live near Talladega because she hopes to still work on race and muscle cars.
Pessoney also noted she won’t dismiss the ample opportunities outside these cities.
“I’ve always said to my dad, I feel like it’s highway robbery that I get to pay money to have all this opportunity, because are you kidding me?” Pessoney said. “If I were to go to Huntsville, or Birmingham, or even Atlanta, [I could say,] ‘Yeah, I’m from Auburn, I’ve got an aerospace engineering degree, and I’ve done this, and I can do this.’ I feel lucky to be able to walk in the door and actually belong there, and have a reason to be there.”