As United marks a century of connecting people around the world and shaping aviation history, we wanted to celebrate a milestone that reflects both how far our company has come and the doors still being opened for future generations. For the first time in United’s history, our most senior pilot is a woman: Captain Chresten Wilson. Through decades of dedication, determination and excellence, she has risen to the very top of her profession where women have long been underrepresented. Her achievement is a powerful reminder that barriers can be broken and dreams can become reality. It was an honor to share the story of a trailblazer whose impact extends far beyond the flight deck. By leading the way, Captain Wilson is inspiring the next generation of young women and girls to follow their dreams of flight and believe that they, too, can soar.
Bringing this project to life required both careful planning and a willingness to adapt to the realities of aviation production. From the beginning, our goal was to tell Captain Chresten Wilson’s story in a way that felt authentic to her life in the air. That meant building the production around a real United operation and Captain Wilson’s scheduled flight from San Francisco to Melbourne, Australia. For our crew to follow her as she worked this flight we had to secure the appropriate work permits, coordinate international travel logistics, and prepare for the challenges of filming during a live overnight flight.
A key part of the execution was close partnership with United’s Flight Operations team at SFO. We worked through the necessary approvals to ensure the filming plan respected safety, crew responsibilities, customer experience, and the operational environment of an active flight. Every creative decision had to be balanced with the realities of the airline: limited space, overnight timing, changing light, restricted access, and the need to capture meaningful moments without disrupting the work happening around us.
By blending Captain Wilson’s personal photos with United archival footage, we were able to visually place her individual journey inside the larger story of the airline. Her photos gave the video intimacy and personal texture, while the archival material connected those moments to United’s broader history, culture, and legacy. Seeing that history alongside images from her own life allowed us to create a bridge between the young person imagining a future in aviation and the senior leader she became.
What made the work unique was the combination of operational complexity and emotional authenticity. We were not simply telling employees that history had been made; we were trying to take them along for the ride~ showing them the journey, the environment, and the people behind it.
We saw the impact of the piece in both the numbers and the response it generated. The video sparked conversation on United’s employee sites, where comments showed that the story resonated beyond the milestone itself, with employees reflecting on pride, representation, progress, and what Captain Chresten Wilson’s career meant to them. One employee shared, “You have reignited my passion” while another noted, “Representation matters, thanks for your continued service, it appears that you are an AMAZING role model for ALL.”
The story also significantly exceeded external social channel benchmarks and became the top-viewed internal video year-to-date on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook, as well as the second top-watched internal video on LinkedIn. It reached more than 2.1M views on Instagram, which was 13X the benchmark; 671K views on TikTok, which was 2X the benchmark; and 1.2M views on Facebook, which was 4X the benchmark. The video also exceeded engagement rate and share rate benchmarks, showing that audiences were not only watching, but actively sharing the story. That momentum helped turn what could have remained an internal milestone into a story with national reach. Coverage from the Today show, People magazine, Travel and Leisure, and Simple Flying gave Captain Wilson’s story visibility well beyond United’s channels and brought broader attention to a moment that otherwise may never have reached such a large public audience. Most importantly, that coverage helped extend the purpose of the video beyond recognition and into inspiration, giving girls and young women a visible example of what is possible in aviation. By seeing Captain Wilson celebrated on national platforms, future aviators could see someone who looked like them at the highest level of the profession and imagine themselves in the flight deck, too. Together, the internal engagement, social performance, and national media attention showed that the project achieved its goal: celebrating a United milestone while elevating a story of representation, progress, and possibility for employees, customers, and future aviators.
