Catherine “Cat” Burton has spent most of her life navigating worlds in which she was never expected to belong. Born
into an aviation family, she began flying professionally in 1972, at a time when there were no female professional
pilots in the United Kingdom. What followed was an extraordinary career spanning some 45 years, during which she
flew everything from Vickers Viscounts to Boeing 747s and eventually became a long-haul captain with British
Airways. Yet while aviation gave Cat a life she loved, it also provided a remarkably effective place to hide a part
of herself that she had not yet fully understood.
Cat eventually came out as transgender in her late fifties and returned to the flight deck as herself, supported by
British Airways and, as she discovered, by many of the colleagues she had feared might reject her. Her story is not
simply about transition or aviation. It is about identity, courage, humour and the extraordinary freedom that comes
from finally stopping the exhausting work of pretending to be someone else. It is also a story about what happens
when a workplace chooses not merely to tolerate difference, but to recognise the value of the person standing in
front of them. Cat went on to become a diversity champion, an advocate for women and minorities in aviation and,
after retiring from British Airways, a flying instructor who clearly has no intention whatsoever of slowing down. As
she puts it rather succinctly, there will be “plenty of time for that when I’m dead.”
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