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Sunday, December 28, 2008

Spitfire Women of WWII, Flying Higher

I bought myself some Christmas presents from Amazon.com - in addition to new books, they also sell used books, and so I just picked up Spitfire Women of World War II, whcih tells the story of the ATS - men and women who ferried all kinds of planes around England in WWII - the equivalent of the WASP although they don't seem to have faced the same kinds of descrimination that the WASP did. (WASP got paid 2/3rds of what male transport pilots got paid, apparently, the women of the ATS were paid the same as the men.)

Anyway, the title of the books says it all - they flew Spitfires, Hurricanes and Lancasters - they flew unarmed, without radios or instruments, at the mercy of the weather and long-range enemy aircraft. Giles Whittell, 2007.

Flying Higher: The Women Airforce Service Pilots of World War II by Wanda Langley, copyright 2002. Sadly, it's a de-accessioned library book, which means that some library in Jacksonville, Florida, decided they wanted to get rid of it...

Oh, well, I'll be sharing info from it at my webzine, Winged Victory, and of course inputting their names into the Women Aviators Wiki - which is now up over 576 entries.

I've been inputting a handful of Powder Puff Derby pilots names every day - I'd be willing to wager that at least half if not more of the women who flew in these Derbies in the 30 years of its existence (1947-1977) were former WASP.

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