fandomhigh | Aviation & Avionics, Thursday, October 23

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Chat with each other, make doodles, have at it!

Yah, he's chatting again today. Oh joy.

Just don't mention that weekend.

"Harriet Quimby (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Quimby) was the first female to gain a pilot license in the United States. In 1911 she earned the first U.S. pilot's certificate issued to a woman by the Aero Club of America, and less than a year later became the first woman to fly across the English Channel. On April 16, 1912, Quimby took off from Dover, England, en route to Calais, France and made the flight in 59 minutes, landing about 25 miles (40 km) from Calais on a beach in Hardelot-Plage, Pas-de-Calais. She had become the first woman to fly the English Channel. Quimby's career ended on July 1, 1912. She was flying in the Third Annual Boston Aviation Meet at Squantum, Massachusetts. William Willard, the event's organizer, was a passenger in her brand-new two-seat Bleriot monoplane. The plane unexpectedly pitched forward for reasons that are still unknown. Both Willard and Quimby were ejected and fell to their deaths, while the plane glided down and lodged itself in the mud."

"Amelia Earhart (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amelia_Earhart) was invited by Wilmer Stultz and Louis Gordon to accompany them on a transatlantic flight, which made her the first woman to cross the Atlantic by air. And, in 1932, she became the first female to cross the Atlantic Ocean alone, which she did in record time; 13 hours and 30 minutes. She was awarded honors from the French and American governments and she was also the first female to fly from Hawaii to California, across the Atlantic Ocean, in 1935. In the same year she also set a speed record for flying from Mexico City to New York City in 14 hours and 19 minutes. Amelia Earhart had intended to fly around the world east to west, starting in Oakland, CA. However, she decided to try another plan when her plane crashed in Hawaii. The company who made the plane, Pratt & Whitney, shipped it back to California to be repaired. Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, started their journey again, this time going from west to east. On July 2, on the leg from Lae, New Guinea to Howland Island, Earhart and Noonan disappeared in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. This area has been thoroughly searched by U.S. Navy ships and planes many times, but no sign of the two flyers has ever been found."

"Jacqueline Cochran (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacqueline_Cochran), known by her friends as "Jackie," flew her first major race in 1934. In 1937, she was the only woman to compete in the Bendix race. She worked with Amelia Earhart to open the race for women. That year, she also set a new woman's national speed record. By 1938, she was considered the best female pilot in the United States. She had won the Bendix and set a new transcontinental speed record as well as altitude records. By this time she was no longer just breaking woman's records but was setting overall records. She was the first woman to break the sound barrier, with Chuck Yeager right on her wing, the first woman to fly a jet across the ocean, and the first woman to fly a bomber across the Atlantic. She won five Harmon Trophies as the outstanding woman pilot in the world. Sometimes called the "Speed Queen," at the time of her death, no pilot, man or woman, held more speed, distance or altitude records in aviation history, than Jackie Cochran. Before the United States joined World War II, she was part of "Wings for Britain" that delivered American built aircraft to Britain and she became the first woman to fly a bomber across the Atlantic. In Britain, she volunteered her services to the Royal Air Force. For several months she worked for the British Air Transport Auxiliary, recruiting qualified women pilots in the United States and taking them to England where they joined the Air Transport Auxiliary. In September 1940, with the war raging throughout Europe, Jackie Cochran wrote to Eleanor Roosevelt to introduce the proposal of starting a women's flying division in the Army Air Forces. She felt that qualified women pilots could do all of the domestic, noncombat aviation jobs necessary in order to release more male pilots for combat."

"Postwar, Jackie began flying the new jet engine aircraft, going on to set numerous records, most conspicuously, she became the first woman pilot to go supersonic. Encouraged by then-Major Chuck Yeager, on May 18, 1953, at Rogers Dry Lake, California, Cochran flew a Canadair F-86 Sabre jet borrowed from the Royal Canadian Air Force at an average speed of 652.337 mph, becoming the first woman to break the sound barrier. She was also the first woman to land and take off from an aircraft carrier, the first woman to reach Mach 2, the first woman to pilot a bomber across the North Atlantic, the first woman enshrined in the National Aviation Hall of Fame, the first pilot to make a blind instrument landing, the only woman to ever be President of the Federation Aeronautique International, the first woman to fly a fixed-wing, jet aircraft across the Atlantic, the first pilot to fly above 20,000 feet with an oxygen mask and the first woman to enter the Bendix Trans-continental Race. She still holds more distance and speed records than any pilot living or dead, male or female. In 1948, Cochran joined the U.S. Air Force Reserve where she eventually rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. In the 1960s, she was a sponsor of the Mercury 13 program, an early program to test the ability of women to be astronauts. A number of the women passed or exceeded the results of the male astronauts before NASA canceled the program."

"Nancy Harkness Love (http://www.womenaviators.org/NancyLove.html) had been flying since she was a teenager. In college she earned extra money taking students for rides in a plane she rented from a nearby airport. Once she flew so low over campus, almost brushing the treetops, that someone was able to read the plane's tail number. University officials were not amused. She was suspended from school for two weeks and forbidden to fly for the rest of the semester. Her qualifications as a pilot meant that her first proposal for a women's flying squadron, though rejected, was taken seriously. In May 1940, just months after the Second World War broke out in Europe, Love wrote to Lieutenant Colonel Robert Olds who was setting up a Ferrying Command within the Army Air Forces. She said she had found 49 excellent women pilots who could help transport planes from factories to bases. General Olds was intrigued. He took the suggestion to General Hap Arnold, who turned it down, though not permanently. According to one account, a chance comment her husband made proved a decisive factor in resurrecting Nancy's proposal. In the spring of 1942, Robert was called for military duty in Washington as the deputy chief of staff of the American Ferry Command. Nancy got an administrative job in Baltimore, to which she commuted by plane. One day Robert happened to mention his wife's daily flight to work to Colonel William Tunner, who was heading up the domestic wing of the ferrying division. Tunner, who at that very moment was scouring the country for skilled pilots, was amazed. He wanted to know if there were many other women who could fly. Within days, he met with Nancy and asked her to write a proposal for a women's ferrying division. Within months, the 28-year-old Love had become the director of the Women's Auxiliary Ferry Squadron, or WAFS, with 25 experienced female pilots under her command. In the summer of 1943 Love's squadron merged with a women's pilot training program that had been set up under Cochran's leadership the previous fall. Cochran was named director of the combined units, which was known as the Women's Airforce Service Pilots. Love was put in charge of all WASP ferrying operations. Under her command, female pilots flew almost every military aircraft then in the air. In some instances, they were even asked to demonstrate to the men that a particular plane was safe. According to Colonel Tunner, the women were instrumental in rescuing the tarnished reputation of the high-speed P-39 pursuit plane, which the men had named the "flying coffin." The men, Tunner claimed, were having so many accidents in the ship because they weren't flying it "according to specifications." He ordered a group of female pilots to begin deliveries of the P-39. They had no trouble, and there were no more complaints from the men."

"Soviet women aviators (http://www.russianlife.com/article.cfm?Number=886) played a crucial role in the defense of their homeland and the victory over Nazi Germany. After the Patriotic War, these heroes returned to their country's farms and factories. Many married fellow pilots or soldiers. Like the men, they returned to heavy losses of family, friends and homes. At the beginning of the Patriotic War, Soviet officials questioned the wisdom of sending women into combat situations. These women proved that they were more than up to the task at hand. In all, Soviet women pilots completed over 24,000 sorties and 68 of their number received the Gold Star, Hero of the Soviet Union award. They never carried parachutes and agreed that, if captured, they would shoot themselves."

This of course, doesn't cover nearly all the women (http://www.century-of-flight.net/Aviation%20history/daredevils/women.htm) aviators (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/flygirls/peopleevents/index.html) throughout history," Murdock turned back to the class. Women played a significant role in aviation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Female_aviators) and much of what makes flight what it is today is due to these (http://www.wai.org/resources/history.cfm) ladies (http://www.womenaviators.org/index.html)."

My head, my head! Oy!

Cindy Mackenzie

Mac managed to dodge most of that unmentionable weekend. She might be looking just a tiny bit smug about that.

Tiny bit.

There was a hat in place of Jack because he was slumped down so far.

Jack was full of doodles. And ignoring the awkward. Really.

Jack was above scowling at people who looked smug at the mention of last weekend and did he mention that his dad was teaching the class? Scowly McScowlface glared.

Naomi Wildman

Naomi took down detailed notes.

Anemone

Aviation & Avionics, Thursday, October 23

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