Women Aviators: 26 Stories of Pioneer Flights, Daring Missions, and Record-Setting Journeys
Part III Wartime and Military Flying 97 Jacqueline Cochran Women Pilots Can Make a Difference 103 Violet Cowden Determined WASP 111 Valentina Grizodubova The Soviet Amelia Earhart 118 Hanna Reitsch The World’s First Female Test Pilot 125 Part IV All Part of the Job 133 Pancho Barnes Stunt Flyer Extraordinaire 136 Lynn Rippelmeyer and Beverly Burns Airline Pilot Captains 142 Wally Funk Air Safety Investigator 148 Patty Wagstaff Aerobatic Firefighter 155 Ingrid Pedersen Polar Bush Pilot 161 Part V Making a Difference 167 Ruth Nichols Relief Wings in Times of Disaster 172 Fay Gillis Wells Promoting World Friendship through Flying 179 Jennifer Murray Helicopter Flying for Charity 186 Ida Van Smith Teaching Children to Fly 192 Jerrie Cobb Missionary Pilot 197 Acknowledgments 203 Notes 205 Glossary 211 Bibliography 217 Index 225
INTRODUCTION At the turn of the last century two brothers ran a bicycle shop in Dayton Ohio They had a dream of creating a machine heavier than air that could fly in the sky Although they tried many experiments they were often greeted by failure But every time they failed they would learn something that brought them closer to success They built a glider in 1902 Then they created a gasoline engine to put in a flyer Finally the Wright Brothers developed a successful airplane that first lifted off from Kitty Hawk North Carolina on December 17 1903 The story of the Wright Brothers first flight is a familiar story but mention Katherine Wright and you’re likely to get a blank look Yet without Katherine Wright it’s questionable whether Wilbur and Orville Wright would have succeeded As the youngest child and only girl in the Wright family Kath erine was forced to grow up quickly after the death of the mother from tuberculosis Only fifteen it became her job to take care of the family She was particularly close to Wilbur and Orville who were closer to her age than the two older Wright brothers She was the only one of the Wright children to finish college Katherine arranged for volunteers to help her brothers with the flying machine She later quit her job to care for Orville who 1
2 WOMEN AVIATORS had been badly hurt in a crash She managed her brothers busi ness affairs and became an officer in their company Katherine had far better social skills than her brothers which also helped their airplane receive the right kind of attention The French were so taken with Katherine that they called her the third Wright brother and awarded her and her brothers the Legion of Honor H(cid:114)h As soon as people were convinced that airplanes and flight were possible they were interested in flying and building airplanes Aviation took off with the most adventurous souls ready to lead the charge To the surprise of many men there were women who wanted to pilot these new flying machines as well Some men didn’t think women had either the physical strength or the mental capacity to pilot an airplane Women had to prove themselves again and again by earning pilot licenses setting records demonstrating aerial moves and winning races They had to keep proving themselves because as Ambassador Clare Boothe Luce once wrote Because I am a woman I must make unusual efforts to succeed If I fail no one will say She doesn’t have what it takes They will say Women don’t have what it takes Today women pilots fly for the airlines in the military and in space They fly air races command helicopter mercy flights haul freight stock high mountain lakes with fish seed clouds patrol pipelines teach others to fly maintain jet engines and transport people Whether male or female people become pilots often for the same reasons First they love flying and they love using their
INTRODUCTION 3 talents and being respected for them They enjoy the feeling of belonging to this strong family called aviation Perhaps most of all they love the challenge of being in the air because there’s nothing else like it
