Julie E. Clark (born June 27, 1948) is a retired American aerobatic air show aviator and commercial airline pilot. She started her commercial flying career with Golden West Airlines as a first officer and ended it in 2003 as a Northwest Airlines Airbus A320 Captain. She was one of the first female pilots to work for a major airline, has been voted as "Performer of the Year" several times over the years for her air show performances,Pioneers and inducted into America's National Aviation Hall of Fame.
Career
Clark has more than 50 years of flight experience, 41 years as a solo aerobatic-air show pilot as of October 19, 2019,American Aerobatics and 37,000 flight hours. She flew an average of 20 air shows a year in her Juice Plus-sponsored Beechcraft T-34 Mentor, and is rated in more than 66 types of aircraft. She is an enshrined member of the Living Legends of Aviation.
Clark received her pilot certificate in 1969 in San Carlos, California. She performed in the same plane from 1977 until 2019, a T-34 Mentor that she bought for $18,000 at a government surplus auction in Anchorage, Alaska. She named the plane Free Spirit, which went to the Hiller Aviation Museum when she retired.
Through her airline career, Clark went from flying the MD-80 out of Las Vegas to flying the Convair 580 out of Minneapolis for more than two decades starting in the early 1980s.
In the late 1990s, she added a North American T-28C Trojan, named Top Banana, to her aerobatics routine.
While at the 2019 EAA AirVenture Oshkosh air show, Clark announced her plans to retire, with her last performance on November 7, 2019 at Nellis Air Force Base.
Awards 2002, Women in Aviation International Pioneer Hall of Fame 2008, National Aeronautics Association (NAA)'s Katharine and Marjorie Stinson Award 2018, Sword of Excellence from the International Council of Air Shows 2019, Federal Aviation Administration's Wright Brothers Master Pilot AwardThe Wright Brothers Master Pilot Awards 2020, NAA's McDonald Distinguished Statesman & Stateswoman of Aviation Award 2023, Katharine Wright Memorial Trophy, presented by the NAA and the Ninety-Nines 2025, Inducted into National Aviation Hall of Fame
Family Clark's father, Captain Ernest Clark, was also an airline pilot. He was murdered in 1964 by a suicidal passenger on Pacific Air Lines Flight 773. All crew and passengers were killed as a result of the passenger shooting both pilots, then himself, causing the plane to crash. Her mother's death just a year earlier, and her father's subsequent death, increased her determination to fly.Rees, Brenda. Los Angeles Times, 2005. Retrieved: May 22, 2009. As of 2025, Clark resides at Cameron Airpark, a "fly-in community" in Cameron Park, California. References
External links News Profiles Display Julie Clark Airshows Julie Clark website archives Biography from Airport Journals Video of Julie Clark performing in her T-34