By Cathy Hansen
Special to Aerotech News
When the men went off to war, and the citizens of America learned to ration gas and food, and to save grease, rubber and aluminum, women were called upon to help in the war effort.
“Rosie the Riveter” built airplanes, trucks and tanks for our military troops and many housewives contributed by working at the Red Cross and tending to Victory Gardens.
In July 1941, Jacqueline Cochran presented a very special idea to the Secretary of War for using woman pilots to ferry aircraft from factories to air bases. She maintained that women were ferrying aircraft for the Royal Air Force in Britain, and flying combat missions in Russia.
She was met with many obstacles and General H. H. “Hap” Arnold told her that the Air Corps was not ready for or needful of women pilots, but she could recruit American women pilots to fill a request of the British Air Transport Auxiliary.
Cochran delivered 25 women pilots with 300-hours flying time who gladly signed a contract for 18-months of flying duty in England.
After some conflict, General Arnold accepted her training plan and agreed there truly was a need for more ferry pilots.
In July 1943, after Cochran’s training program proved itself, all women pilots were consolidated in the Army Air Forces, as the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WASP).
Over 25,000 young women signed up for the WASP program, but few of them made the cut. Of the 1,800 women selected, only 1,078 graduated to become pioneers, heroes, and role models. They were the first women to ever fly American military aircraft.
These women paved the way for our women aviators in the U.S. military today. Throughout the war, WASP flew over 60-million-miles in 77 different aircraft, ranging from trainers to B-29 bombers. These women had the same spirit of flight then that fills the souls of the men and women who fly today; the same spirit that binds all of us in the thrill of aviation.
In 1942, Eleanor Roosevelt said, “This is not a time when women should be patient. We are in a war, and we need to fight it with all our ability and every weapon possible. Women pilots, in this particular case, are a weapon waiting to be used.”