Meet two Dragon Ladies on March 13

from Aero-News Network:
http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?contentBlockId=f76a6436-b477-409b-b2a9-1ed027d6d13a

Smithsonian Celebrates Women In Aviation And Space

The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center Will Host Events On March 13
The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum (NASM) will host a free "Heritage Family Day" themed around "Women in Aviation and Space" on Saturday March 13, from 10am to 3pm. Events will take place at the NASM's Udvar-Hazy Center where parents and children will learn about the accomplishments of women in aviation, science and aerospace.

Visitors will learn about the accomplishments of Amelia Earhart, the Women Air Force Service Pilots (WASPs), astronaut Sally Ride, and women who are currently contributing to aviation, science, technology, and space exploration. Book signings, story time, and fun and educational hands-on activities will take place throughout the Museum.

Speakers for the day include Maj. Nicole Malachowski, the first female plot in the USAF Thunderbirds exhibition team, and Maj. Merryl Tengesdal and Capt. Heather Fox, two of only six female pilots in the history of the U-2 "Dragon Lady". The Women in Aviation and Space program is presented in partnership with the Girl Scouts of America, and visitors will be able to view science projects by local Girl Scout troops.

Girl Hero Tara (pilot and body-sculptor)

I'm not sure what the last name of this pilot is...I can't find it anywhere, but she's an airline pilot who flies a 737.

She's also a body sculptor (as opposed to a body builder) who works hard at keeping her body in shape, so much so that she participates in competitions - when she can fit them into her schedule.

[I differentiate body builder from body sculptor because a body builder is someone who deliberately tries to create humongous muscle mass that just looks grotesque, IMHO, and a body sculptor is someone who sculpts their body into smooth, powerful, normal looking lines.)

Makes for interesting reading, for anyone who is a few pounds overweight and more who wants to know what it takes to lose that weight, and sculpt that body.

http://www.girl-heroes.com/2010/02/24/girl-hero-tara/

Aviation Museum in Amarillo, Texas?

Reading the website of http://Amarillo.com - came across an editorial asking for serious discussion of an aviation museum.

I take the liberty of reproducing it here:

An exhibit saluting an important part of the Panhandle's history just might be ready to take wing.

It would be an aviation museum dedicated to honoring the Age of Flight and the role it has played in the development of the Texas Panhandle.

It's the brainchild of the Texas Air & Space Museum board, veterans of the English Field Air & Space Museum that used to occupy space adjacent to what would become Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport.

The discussion has begun and it should continue.

Think of what aviation has brought to this region.

Amarillo was home to a Strategic Air Command base until the late 1960s. Its closure and the hard feelings it produced - not to mention the devastating impact it had on our economy - remain topics of water-cooler discussion to this day.

Bell Helicopter had a huge assembly plant nearby before closing after the end of the Vietnam War; Bell has returned in a big way with its V-22 Osprey and helicopter assemby operation next to AMA.

Amarillo is home to two shuttle astronauts, the late Rick Husband and Paul Lockhart; in addition, Wheeler is the birthplace of Alan Bean, the fourth man to walk on the moon as a member of the Apollo 12 lunar-landing mission, and who also flew aboard Skylab on a long-term earth-orbit mission in the 1970s.

Florene Miller Watson of Borger was one of the pioneering female aviators during World War II.

This region has plenty of museum expertise upon which organizers can draw. The American Quarter Horse and the Panhandle-Plains Historical museums both attract thousands of visitors annually. It wouldn't hurt one bit to ask those folks: How do you do it?

An aviation museum - at a highly visible site - is a good fit for Amarillo.

Let us proceed.

Who was Florene Miller Watson?

From the WASP Page dedicated to her:

Florene Miller Watson was born on December 7, 1920, in San Angelo, Texas. She became fascinated with planes at age 8 and by age 19 had finished flight school and completed her first solo flight.

Watson received her instructor's rating and was teaching men to fly in the War Training Program in Odessa and Lubbock, Texas when WWII began. Watson turned 21 on December 7, 1941, the day the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and soon afterward she and her younger brother volunteered for Army service.

The Army was searching for 50 women with 500 hours of flying time to become aircraft, cargo and troop ferriers. This was double the standard for men who only needed 250 hours to qualify to be Army pilots. Watson was one of only 25 who qualified for the original Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron, later known as the Women's Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs). These women averaged 1,100 hours flying time. In January, 1943, she was made Commanding Officer over the WASPs stationed at Love Field, Dallas, Texas. Watson also served as a test pilot, and in 1944 tested radar equipment before its general use in the war. By the time the war was over, Watson had flown every kind of aircraft used by the Air Corp.

Considered civilians by the military, though the women held officer status, the women were held to higher qualifying standards than men, and operated under extreme pressure to succeed. Some 1,000 women pilots were trained by the military for service in the Ferrying Division, and 38 women were killed during their service to the war. It took 33 years for the women pilots of World War II to be militarized, and in September 1992, Watson traveled to Washington, D.C. to receive an award recognizing the Women's Airforce Service Pilots. She was the National Chaplain for many years of the WASPs WWII.

After the War, Watson earned her Master's Degree in Business Administration and taught college for 30 years before retiring. Married for over 50 years, Florene and Chris Watson have two daughters and four grandchildren and continue to live in Borger, Texas. Chris Watson was a member of the "Oil Patch Warriors," an American oil drilling crew that drilled for oil for Great Britain in Sherwood Forest during WWII. In one year they drilled 94 producing wells, increasing Great Britian's oil production by more than 3,000 barrels a day.

Florene continues to serve in her church and community. She maintains close ties to aviation with memberships in the Texas Aviation Historical Society, the Ninety-Nines, the Commemorative Air Force (Confederate), the Women's Military Aviators and the Women's Airforce Service Pilots WWII.

She has been featured in a number of magazines and books with photos and write-ups. A number of television interviews, programs on aviation, plus video and audio histories to be used by universities and college archives departments as well as aviation museums. She was also featured in the nationally-broadcasted TV documentary Women of Courage explaining the role of women pilots of WWII---The Women Airforce Service Pilots.

Watson has been honored with Distinguished Flying Corps Membership in the Kritser Aviation and Space Museum, Amarillo, Texas, in 1988. Watson was also inducted into the Ninety-Nines International Forest of Friendship, Atchison, Kansas, (Amelia Earhart's Home) for exceptional contributions to aviation, 1995. She was a speaker at the Experimental Aircraft Association's Museum at the 1995 Oshkosh, Wisconsin, International Air Show. Watson was the first woman to be inducted into the Panhandle Veterans Hall of Fame, August 1996. Watson was also honored in a special way as a "Distinguished Veteran" at the Air Force Military Ball and accompanying activities in Dallas, Texas, March 14-15, 1997.

As Chaplain of the WASP organization, she was on the program with Attorney General Janet Reno to dedicate a bronze statue representing the WASP that was placed in the Honor Court of the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, September 19, 1997. Watson was a special guest of General Paul Tibbets who was honored by the Confederate Air Force in Midland, Texas, October 2-5, 1997. General Tibbets was in charge of the atom bomb project of WWII and flew the B-29 Inola Gay to drop the first bomb on Japan, thus ending WWII. Watson attended the 3-day dedication ceremonies for the Women's Military Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., October 16-17, 1997. She was also a guest of General Paul Tibbets and his three Enola Gay crew members at the Iwo Jima Reunion in Wichita Falls, Texas, February 20-25, 1998. Note: The bombardier on the Enola Gay, Major Thomas W. Ferebee, was stationed at Ardmore Army Air Field from June through September 1944 before transferring to Wendover Field, Utah and becoming part of the Enola Gay crew. The "Bock's Car" bombardier, Captain Kermit K. Beahan, was also stationed at Ardmore, 1943-44.

Watson was invited to be a member of the Gathering of Eagles organization of distinguished aviation pioneers in June 2001. This elite program was organized in 1982. The 2001 program, the 20th Gathering of Eagles, was titled "Legends and Leaders of Aerospace" and honored 16 civilian and military aviation leaders. Florene was also recognized for her achievements at the 2002, 2003 and 2005 "gatherings."

Another recognition for Watson was the bestowing of the Medal of Honor from the national society of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). This honor is bestowed on worthy recipients known "to have done something outstanding" to show their commitment to God, Home and Country. The medal was presented December 9, 2001 in her hometown, Borger, Texas. The Borger "Josiah Bartlett Chapter" of the DAR sponsored Watson.

In addition, the Air Force Association's, Lifetime Achievement Award, its highest honor, was also presented to Watson. Reagan County, Texas, where she grew up, renamed its airport in her honor and the International Women in Aviation inducted Florene to its prestigious Pioneer Hall of Fame.

66-year old Val Paget sets soaring record

A SOARING FEAT
Heights glider pilot wings her way into the record books (from Houston and Texas News)

For as long as she can remember, Val Paget has reached for the sky and felt at home there. She got her first taste while climbing a 14,000-foot mountain with her father at age 3.

Yet today the 66-year-old retired English teacher living in the Heights is pushing herself beyond any mountain summit.

That's why she became a sky sailor of sorts, eventually flying to a place where no woman has gone before. The flight that drew worldwide attention was when she navigated her glider about 269 miles on one trip — the first woman to go that far while making three turns in a PW-5 glider.

Her sleek, motorless glider with the 45-foot wingspan made that seven-hour journey powered only by the air beneath its wings. It mimics the flight of circling hawks or buzzards that often like to fly on her wing tips.

Paget's record flight on Aug. 8 was validated recently by the Federation Aeronautique International in Paris, which has recognized aviators such as Charles Lindbergh. Then Paget's aerial exploit was honored just a few weeks ago at the Soaring Society of America's national convention in Little Rock, Ark.

Nature's power
She said she could have pinched herself as she watched the realization of her dream.

“Soaring gets you in tune with nature and the enormous power of it,” she said. “Like the movie Titanic you get this feeling that you can rule the world.”

As a young girl, whenever she climbed to the pinnacle of a mountain like Pikes Peak in Colorado with her father, she always imagined flying off into the sky.

She knew there had to be an easier way to view mountaintops than making grueling climbs in severe weather.

So when the youngest of her two daughters left home for college, she took the flying lessons that she had always wanted.

The then-47-year-old was still teaching English at Spring High School. But while she loved reading, she wasn't a typical bookworm who enjoyed sitting on the sidelines. She craved adventure.

So Paget felt hopeful on that August morning when she climbed inside the cramped cockpit, which is about the size of a go-kart, to attempt the world record.

2,000 feet up
After being towed on a rope by a plane to an altitude of 2,000 feet, she was cut loose and sailed into the blue sky. From that instant, she had to artfully maneuver the stick and rudder with her hands and feet to catch “lifts” from columns of warm air.

“If you just lean a little, you can alter your course,” she explained. “It's like using your knees to guide a horse.”

Sustaining such a long trip for so many hours requires a lot of expertise, said her husband, Glenn Giddens, a retired control systems engineer and glider instructor. And this trip would have some daunting moments.

First, she almost aborted when she spotted an ominous thunderstorm. Another glider pilot, who had been flying at her side, had already retreated to the grassy landing field near Waller where they had started.

Paget knew those dark clouds could suck out all the thermal power needed for soaring. But the storm line appeared to stop moving a few miles before reaching her. “It looked frozen. So I decided to keep going,” she said.

It was a good decision as she soared along her course, making her three turns near Madisonville, Wallis and Bryan. But on the last leg, she headed into a strong, 20-knot headwind that cut her speed from 65 miles per hour to 25.

“I radioed that I may not make it back,” she said, believing she might be forced to make an emergency landing.

Her husband recalled how she had once landed on the city dump in Killeen after she couldn't get around Fort Hood's restricted airspace.

Now the sun was lower in the sky, which meant she also had fewer thermal lifts. Her craft started dropping closer and closer to the patchwork landscape underneath her.

But the glider never slipped lower than 1,400 feet before returning to the starting point at Waller.

Setting that record, she said, wasn't nearly as difficult as the average day she spent in a classroom for 29 years.

But the trip had its own challenges, lasting seven hours with no rest stops or bathroom facilities on board.

How did she handle it?

“Depends,” she said.

If you'd like to fly but find the cost of aviation lessons prohibitive, consider learning how to fly a glider. It's a lot less expensive, and you learn a lot of the same material that you'll eventually need to know if you become a powered-craft pilot. So it's all good.

Maj. Gen. Jessica Wright Honored with Founders Day award

I take the liberty of repeating the complete article, brief as it is, below:

By BARBARA MILLER, The Patriot-News
January 29, 2010, 2:58PM
For the first time, Lebanon Valley College will honor a member of the military with its annual Founders Day award. Maj. Gen. Jessica L. Wright, commander of the Pennsylvania National Guard based at Fort Indiantown Gap, will receive the award at 11 a.m. Feb. 16 in Miller Chapel.

Wright is responsible for the Pennsylvania’s 19,000 Air and Army National Guard personnel, six state-owned veterans’ homes and programs for the state’s 1.1 million veterans. She was the Army National Guard’s first female aviator, the first woman in the Army to be appointed as a maneuver brigade commander, and in 2005, became Pennsylvania’s first female adjutant general.

By honoring her, the college said it is also recognizing and thanking all members of the Pennsylvania National Guard. The award recognizes individuals whose character and leadership contribute to the enhancement of life in central Pennsylvania.

LVC to honor Maj. Gen. Jessica Wright with Founders Day award

Amelia Earhart portrayed in graphic novel: "This Broad Ocean"

Here's the link to the story:
Earhart flies again, graphically speaking

MONTPELIER – When Sarah Stewart Taylor was asked to choose a woman to profile for the latest graphic novel by Vermont's cartoon college, there was easily one name that quickly rose to the top of the list.

"I've always been fascinated by Amelia Earhart," said Taylor, a fiction novelist from Hartford. "Her disappearance in 1937 really appealed to me, partly because I am a mystery writer."

But for Taylor's first graphic novel, "Amelia Earhart: This Broad Ocean," which was produced by the Center for Cartoon Studies in White River Junction and features art by North Carolina's Ben Towle, she instead focuses on an earlier flight by the aviation legend: The June 1928 flight across the Atlantic from Newfoundland to Wales.

That 20-hour flight made her the first female passenger (the plane was flown by pilot Wilmer Stultz) to cross the Atlantic Ocean.

Taylor said her first instinct was to focus on the 1937 flight that ended in Earhart's disappearance, but in her research about the woman she was continually drawn to the drama of the 1928 flight.

The 78-page graphic novel begins and ends in the tiny fishing village that Earhart lands in to refuel before the Atlantic trip. Weather and other problems left her and her pilot stranded in the village for two weeks. Meanwhile, several other female pilots also begin eyeing the prize of being the first woman to fly across the Atlantic.

Read the complete article at the link above.

And purchase the book for your daughter's birthday, unbirthday, graduation present, or what have you:

Soar Elinor: Children's biography of Elinor Smith

Was surfing the web yesterday and came across the news that author Tami Lewis Brown (author of books for teens such as ONE SHINY SILVER KEY), has also written her first picture book, called Soar Elinor, which tells the story of Elinor Smith.

Tami Lewis Brown is also a pilot. You fly, girl!

www.TamiLewisBrown.com

Annoyingly, this website is frame-driven, so I can't link to the page where she talks about the book, Soar Elinor, nor can I link to the page where she comments that actress Mia Wasikowska plays Elinor Smith in the recent biopic of Amelia Earhart, called Amelia. (Amelia and Elinor did not get along...or at least, Elinor didn't care for Amelia, thinking herself the much better pilot, but with no wealthy husband to bring her publicity.)

Eleanor Smith, left and Bobbi Trout at Van Nuys Airport, around 1929.

For more photos of Van Nuys Airport history, see http://www.lawa.org/welcome_VNY.aspx?id=1622.