Female Aviators

Amy Johnson (1903 - 1941)
Amy Johnson took her first flight lesson at the London Aeroplane Club in 1928 with little encouragement. True, it took her twice as long as most to complete her training. However, she proved to many that her aviator abilities were phenomenal. Months after receiving her pilot's license, she became the first British woman to qualify as a ground engineer. That was just one of many female firsts. Johnson began her love for long-distance flying with a 19 _ day and 8,600-mile flight on May 24, 1930. That flight marked her as the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia. Johnson would complete other similar feats in her short life. The Royal Air Force invited her to join the Air Transport Auxiliary, ferrying aircraft from factories to air bases. January of 1941, she would be the first to die. Her plane was reported missing and her body was never found.

Harriet Quimby (1884 - 1912)
Harriet Quimby, a New York journalist, became the first licensed American Woman pilot in August of 1911. Adorned in a purple flying suit that she designed herself, Harriet would achieve success in her short-lived flight career ­ most notably as the first woman to fly across the English Channel. Unfortunately, her tremendous accomplishment was met with modest mention. The Titanic had just recently sunk and its news overshadowed her historical crossing. Three months, Quimby died in a tragic accident at an airshow near Boston.

Amelia Earhart (1897 ­ 1937)
Born in Atchison, Kansas on July 24, 1897, Amelia Earhart would soon become one of America's most famous aviatrix. After attending an "aerial meet" with her father in Daugherty Field in Long Beach, she boarded her first plane as a passenger and later said, "As soon as we left the ground I knew I myself had to fly!" In 1925, Amelia took a position in Boston as a "novice" social worker. She joined the Boston Chapter of the National Aeronautic Association, and was soon recognized as "one of the best women pilots in the United States" by the Boston Globe. However, it was on April 27, 1926 that her life would change forever. She received a phone call from Captain H.H. Railey asking her, "how would you like to be the first woman to fly across the Atlantic?" A week later Amelia would meet with George Putnam, a New York publisher, (who she would later marry) who was in search of the perfect woman to make the Trans-Atlantic flight. On May 20, 1932, exactly 5 years after Charles Lindbergh's flight, Amelia began the journey. Somewhat off-course, she landed in an open field near Londonderry in Northern Ireland. On climbing from her plane a man approached. She asked: "Where am I?"...the man replied "in Gallegher's pasture...have you come far?"..."from America", she replied. She had broken several records on this flight...the first woman to fly the Atlantic solo and only person to fly it twice...the longest non-stop distance flown by a woman...and a record for crossing in the shortest time. Later in 1935, Amelia began to formulate plans for an around-the-world flight. On June 1, 1937 Amelia and her navigator Fred Noonan departed Miami, Florida for that very mission. On July 2, Amelia made her last radio contact and it was determined that the plane had gone down. Her body was never found. In a letter to George, she wrote, "Please know I am quite aware of the hazards...I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail their failure must be but a challenge to others."

Cornelia Fort (1919 -1943)
Cornelia Fort was a young female flight instructor from Tennessee when she was flying over Honolulu on December 7, 1941 with a student. Mid-flight she encountered a plane with the red sun symbol on the wing and noticed billowing smoke in the distance over Pearl Harbor — she had just witnessed the US entry into World War II. She later joined the WASPs and on March 21st, 1943 a mid-air collision would tragically take her life. Her commanding officer, Nancy Love wrote these words home to this brave woman's mother, "My feeling about the loss of Cornelia, is hard to put into words. I can only say that I miss her terribly, and loved her...If there can be any comforting thought, it is that she died as she wanted to -- in an Army airplane, and in the service of her country." An Airpark was named after Fort in Nashville, TN — Cornelia Fork Airpark Airport, where an historic marker commemorates her with her own words, "I am grateful that my one talent, flying, was useful to my country."

Jackie Cochran (1906 -1980)
Cochran was orphaned at a young age and grew up in a Foster family in Florida. A trained beautician, she began her distinguished career as an aviator in 1932 at the urging of her future husband. She would later write, "At that moment, when I paid for my first lesson, a beauty operator ceased to exist and an aviator was born." Cochran would spend the next several years achieving accomplishment after accomplishment. In 1938 her P-35 shot across the finish line in the transcontinental Bendix Race, a challenging cross-country race from LA to Cleveland. She was also won the prestigious women's Harmon trophy. But it wasn’t until September of 1939, that Cochran recognized her true fate and her desire to contribute something to her country. Cochran wrote to Lady Eleanor Roosevelt offering her services to the Army Air Corps. However, it would be several years before this goal would become a reality. However during that time she formed the Woman's Flying Training Detachment (WFTD). In 1943, the famed Women's Air Force Service Pilots (WASPs), a group of more than 1000 female aviators was formed through a merger with the Nancy Love's Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS.)

Nancy Harkness Love (1914 - 1976)
Love was from an affluent family and began her love of flying at the early age of 16. Later, while attending Vassar College, she later started her own flight school and made extra money flying friends. However, it was her marriage to Air Corps Officer, Robert Love that drew attention to her and put her in a position to lobby for a woman's flying squadron in World War II.
After the outbreak of World War II, Love's husband was stationed to active duty in Washington DC. Love landed a job at the Air Transport Command (ATC) Ferrying Division, and it was during this time that she recognized the potential for women pilots to ferry planes. She faced many roadblocks, but eventually with the support of Colonel Tunner, the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) was established in September 1942. The WAFS would later merge with Jackie Cochran's Woman's Flying Training Detachment (WFTD) and form the WASPs, a corps who delivered aircraft to the military bases.