[1] Masson earned a PhD from the University of Southern California in 1976, specializing in aerospace safety and writing her dissertation on the Air Force's response to women as pilots.
She set several speed records for commercial air routes and was the first woman to serve as Chief Pilot for American Airlines.
Gayl Angela Masson was born in 1951[2] at Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, California.
She went on to fly as a charter pilot for Express Airways out of Naval Air Station Lemoore on a civilian contract for the Navy.
Frustrated to see her former male students flying jets while women were barred from the military, she returned to school to pursue her doctorate.
At age 24, she wrote her PhD dissertation "Elements of Organizational Discrimination: The Air Force Response to Women as Military Pilots".
The dissertation was entered into the Congressional record by a woman helicopter pilot from the Navy during hearings about opening military academies to women.
[3] Masson briefly hosted The Tangela Tricoli Talk Show on public access TV in Los Angeles.
[6] She was a candidate in the 1981 Los Angeles mayoral election, campaigning for a "vacuport system" for commuters next to the freeway.
[12] Her sister, Lisa Masson, is a physician and Medical Director at Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles.