Aviations Greatest

Book Review: Fly Girls

March 29, 2023March 26, 2023flynthingsLeave a comment

The Daring American Women Pilots Who Helped Win WWII

Written by P. O’Connell Pearson, Fly Girls, tells the stories of the daring women pilots who helped win World War II. Only men were allowed to fly military airplanes and as war loomed, the US Army Airforce had a desperate need for skilled pilots. Through pure determination, 1,100 female pilots were finally allowed to ferry planes from factories to bases, to tow targets for live ammunition artillery training, to test repaired planes and new equipment among other things.

There is Jacqueline Cochran whose persistence and perseverance in appealing to the US Army Air Corps, or advancing the ideas to General Arnold at a White House event to allow women to support the military pilots by conducting noncombat flying jobs finally paid off. She was invited to head a program for training women pilots. As head of the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) she supervised the training of over one thousand women to fly experimental Air Force planes.

There is Nancy Harkness Love who convinced Col. Tunner of using experienced women pilots to supplement the existing pilot force and was instrumental in recruiting 29 experienced women pilots to join the newly created Women’s Auxiliary Ferry Squadron (WAFS). During her tenure as Commander of the ferrying squadrons the WAFS merged with the Women’s Flying Training Detachment (WFTD) and became a single entity: the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP).

There is Cornelia Fort who was airborne on that fateful day and saw with her own eyes when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7^th, 1941. She went on to become the second applicant to be accepted to the WAFS. She along with many other women pilots flew successful aircraft deliveries.

Fly Girls covers the stories of these and other daring women who through their grit and determination, patriotism, love of flying, and willingness to serve worked tirelessly during the war effort and helped win the war.

A brief description about the book on Amazon reads:

“In the tradition of Hidden Figures, debut author Patricia Pearson offers a beautifully written account of the remarkable but often forgotten group of female fighter pilots who answered their country’s call in its time of need during World War II.”

The book can be purchased as hardback, paperback, or kindle.

WAFS: Betty Tackaberry Blake

March 22, 2023March 18, 2023flynthingsLeave a comment

“Just believe in yourself. Study and work hard, and you can get to your goal, no matter what it is, if you just believe in yourself and try“

Betty Tackaberry Blake was a United States aviator who witnessed the arrival of the Japanese at Pearl Harbor and was the graduate from the first class of the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS).

Source: Veteran Tributes

Born on October 20, 1920 in Honolulu, Hawaii, Betty Guild was encouraged to learn to fly by Amelia Earhart whom she met when she was 14 years old. Betty took her first flight at 15. She earned her license from the Civilian Pilot Program at University of Hawaii and went on to complete her commercial and instructor pilot training. On Dec 7, 1941 she witnessed the bombing of Pearl Harbor from her balcony. She had received her instructor’s rating and regular commercial license the previous afternoon, but civilian flights were immediately banned in Hawaii.

In 1942 Betty married Robert Tackaberry, a naval officer. She later applied and was accepted to the first class of Jackie Cochran’s new experimental flight training program Army Air Corps base in Houston, TX. She served as ferrying pilot stationed in Long Beach, CA. After the WASP was disbanded, she received instruction at the air force officer’s training school in Orlando, FL. She served as simulated flight instructor for air force trainees until 1945, when she divorced Tackaberry and stopped flying.

She later married George Blake, an officer in the Air Transport Command and moved to Arizona. She passed away on April, 9^th 2015 at the age of 94. She is believed to be the last surviving graduate of the first WASP training class during World War II.

WAFS: Betty Gillies

March 15, 2023March 12, 2023flynthings

Betty Gillies was an American Aviator who became the first pilot to qualify for the Woman Auxiliary Ferrying Service (WAFS) and the first woman to fly the Republic-47 Thunderbolt.

Born in 1908 in Long Island, NY, Betty Gillies, while a student nurse in New York City, began flying in 1928 and obtained her license in May 1929 after 23 hours of flight. She continued to build hours towards her commercial license. She joined the Ninety Nines in 1929, and was serving as their president between 1939-1941 when the US entered World War II.

Source: Wikipedia

Betty became one of the original WAFS members in 1942 and later that year, she was named commander of the WAFS stationed at New Castle Army Air Base in Delaware. She became the first woman to fly the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt in March 1943. WAFS name was changed to Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) in 1943, and Betty remained as squadron leader of the WASP assigned to the 2nd Ferrying Group at New Castle Army Air Base until they were disbanded on December 20, 1944.

After more than 50 years in the air, she stopped flying in 1986 due to vision problems. She died on October 14th, 1998 in San Diego.

March is Woman History Month and Women of Aviation Month

See Also:

Wikipedia
Ninety-Nines
Womens History

WAFS: Teresa James

March 8, 2023March 10, 2023flynthings

Teresa James was a stunt pilot and barnstormer known for two key things – flew more P-47 Thunderbolts than any other pilot during the war and she also had the distinction of ferrying the “10 Grand” which was the 10,000^th Thunderbolt off the Republic Aircraft assembly line.

Born on January 24, 1914, in Pittsburg, PA, Teresa James soloed at age 19 and became the first female flight instructor to graduate from Buffalo Aeronautical Institute. She received her commercial transport license October 1941, with over 600 hours. She performed as a stunt pilot at air shows around Pennsylvania, Ohio, and New York. She flew the mail, hauled parachute jumpers, and worked at her family’s flower shop.

Source: Wikipedia

In October 1942, she was sworn into to the Woman Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) and was the first WAFS pilot to fly a military plane (PT-19) coast-to-coast across the United States. She stayed with the WAFS as they were merged to form the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) and until the organization was disbanded on December 20, 1944.

She resumed giving flying lessons and in 1950, accepted a commission in the Air Force Reserve, retiring 27 years later at the rank of major after serving in Pennsylvania, California and Alaska. She was a member of the Ninety Nines since 1939. Her WAFS uniform is displayed at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D. C.

She flew her final flight in July 2008, and passed away on July 26^th, 2008 at the age of 94 years.

March is Women History Month and Women of Aviation Month.

WAFS: Cornelia Fort

March 1, 2023February 27, 2023flynthings

Cornelia Clark Fort was a United States aviator who became famous for being part of two aviation-related events: Pearl Harbor and second woman to join the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS).

Cornelia Fort was born in 1919 in Nashville, TN. Her interest in aviation was born at a young age of five when she watched a barnstormer perform in the Curtiss Jenny. She took her first lesson in 1940 and was hooked becoming an instructor in 1941. Her first job was at Fort Collins, CO flight school where she was the only woman flight instructor in a government sponsored pilot training program.

Source: Wikipedia

One warm December morning Cornelia and her student were out flying. The student practiced, honing his skills prior to solo flight, practicing take-offs and landings and level flight when Cornelia observed a military aircraft headed in their direction. While not unusual since the military base was next to the civilian airport, something was off. It was December 1941. Knowing something was off, Cornelia had seized the controls from the student and averted an incident with the oncoming aircraft, and watched in utter disbelief, as the Japanese aircraft passed by. She and her student landed and fled to safety.

Knowing US was soon headed to war she was interested in contributing to that effort. She accepted a instructor position at Andrews Flying Service in Honolulu in September of 1941 and by December of that year she had 300 flight hours. In September of the same year she joined the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Service (WAFS). WAFS was created in September 1942 within the Air Transport Command, under Nancy Harkness Love’s leadership. WAFS were recruited from among commercially licensed women pilots with at least 500 hours flying time and a 200-hp rating.

She was based in Long Beach, CA and checked out in the BT-13 and participated in ferrying missions. It was during one of those missions when she was transporting a group of pilots from Long Beach to Dallas, TX in March 1943, she perished in during a mid-air collision with another aircraft that resulted in her aircraft crashing to the ground. She was the first of the WAFS to be killed on a mission.

March is Women History Month and Women of Aviation Month.

See Also:

Wikipedia: Cornelia Fort

Lost Aviators of Pearl Harbor

Plane and Pilot Magazine: Cornelia Fort

Fly Girls: Cornelia Fort

Fresh on Fridays: Apollo 11 Command Module

Image February 24, 2023January 29, 2023flynthings

Where is it?

November 23, 2022November 20, 2022flynthings

“Where is it”, I wondered, as I crossed the threshold and entered.

My eyes glued to the ceiling, looking right first, and then left. It was nowhere to be seen.

This can’t be right. Am I looking in the right corner? I can’t have forgotten. Not after almost two decades of fascination. In fact, so much had changed I could no longer recognize where everything was.

Was it really gone?

You see, my fascination began almost at the beginning. It was Spring of 2003 when first news of the spacecraft rippled the airwaves. In May of that year flight tests for SpaceShipOne began over the Mojave dessert. Uncrewed captive flight tests were followed by glide tests. That fall I was fortunate enough to attend the 99s Southwest Section Meeting hosted at Lancaster, CA. The organizers had planned a trip to Scaled Composites at Mojave Airport. The highlight of that event for me was seeing SpaceShipOne up close and personal in its hanger, standing right under its wings almost a touch away.

In June of the following year, I made the pre-dawn early morning trek back to the Mojave Dessert and watched SpaceShipOne achieve its destiny as the first commercial spaceflight and later that year won the Ansari X Prize. SpaceShipOne flew its last flight in October 2004, made the victory lap in Oshkosh, WI in 2005 during Airventure, and reached its final destination at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in October of that year. Displayed along with The Spirit of St Louis, Bell X-1 and Apollo 11 Command Module, Columbia, it graced the main atrium for more than a decade. A replica of SpaceShipOne hangs at the EAA Museum in Oshkosh, WI. Over the years, I have had the pleasure of seeing both many times.

SpaceShipOne at NASM prior to Transformation

The National Air and Space Museum (NASM) has been undergoing a multi-year renovation, since 2018. All exhibitions are being reimagined, with new presentation spaces and attractions. Construction and the recent pandemic had resulted in partial or full closure of the museum over the last two years. Although construction will continue through 2025, and some exhibits are not yet available, this past October the museum reopened to the public. Museum visits are available through reservations through March of next year. While I knew transformation was happening, I had not expected such drastic changes.

The main atrium like the rest has been transformed. The Milestones of Flight gallery which hosted aircraft that were used to achieve first flights is now replaced by America by Air. My favorite SpaceShipOne for now remains in storage. Meanwhile there is always the replica in Wisconsin to appease the mind.