Sun ‘n Fun 2025 – Ninety-Nines Trailblazer Luncheon
The Ninety-Nines Trailblazer Luncheon at Sun ‘n Fun Aerospace Expo has moved to Saturday!
Cecilia Aragon—Flying Free, from Fear to First
Saturday April 5th, 11:30am, Prop75 at Sun ‘n Fun’s 51st Annual Aerospace Expo
Aerobatic champion Cecilia Aragon will be the featured speaker at the Ninety-Nines Trailblazers in Aviation Luncheon on Saturday April 5th from 11:30-1:30pm at the 2025 Sun ‘n Fun Aerospace Expo.
This legacy event is part of a great lineup of events in collaboration with Sun ‘n Fun’s second annual Women Aces, showcasing the talented women who have paved the runway in the aviation industry. Order your tickets and singed books now!
DR. CECILIA ARAGON is an award-winning author, airshow pilot, and the first Latina to earn the rank of Full Professor in the College of Engineering at the University of Washington. She’s worked with Nobel Prize winners and has taught astronauts to fly. Her innovative research, and a stint at NASA designing software for Mars missions, led President Obama to call her “one of the top scientists and engineers in the country.” In addition to her love of math and science, she’s passionate about helping others face their own fears and challenges to achieve their goals.
Join us for a catered lunch and presentation at Prop 75 at 11:30 on Saturday, April 5th to learn how Cecilia overcame her paralyzing fear and self-doubt, adapted to fly and train as a competitive aerobatic pilot, and used mathematics to overcome the limitations of her Pitts S-1T to maximize the score of an impossible aerobatic competition sequence and earn her place as the first Latina on the United States Unlimited Aerobatic Team, the ‘Olympics’ of aviation.
Cecilia also will discuss her aircraft ownership journey. She bought her first airplane even before she soloed, a used Cessna 150 that she bought to save money on Hobbs time. In 38 years of flying, she has owned nearly 20 aircraft including her Pitts S-1T, and a custom-built Sabre 320 for airshows and world competition. Since then, she has owned aircraft for personal and business use, set up co-ownerships and flying clubs, owned leasebacks and rentals, and owned and operated an all-tailwheel and aerobatic flight school in California for several years. She currently instructs aerobatics in a Super Decathlon in the Seattle area.
Cecilia’s memoir, Flying Free: My Victory Over Fear to Become the First Latina Pilot on the US Aerobatic Team will be available for purchase and book signing. Flying Free debuted on five bestseller lists and is the winner of the 2021 Nancy Pearl Award from the Pacific Northwest Writers Association, and the International Latino Book Award Gold Medal for Most Inspirational Nonfiction in English.
Flying Free is the story of how Cecilia broke free from expectations and rose above her own limits by combining her passion for flying with math and logic in unexpected ways. You don’t have to be a math whiz or science geek to learn from her story. You just have to want to soar.
