This Day In Women's Aviation

I received my This Day in Women's Aviation desk calender from www.powderpuffpilot.com today.

I'm quite pleased wit the information - one snippet of information per each of the 365 days in the year, as per any other desk calendar, sitting on a sturdy black plastic base.

It's a maiden effort, however, and so instead of individual photographs or illustrations of the pilot concerned for each day, the illustration for each day is only of the Powder Puff Pilot logo.

If this calendar is a success, then I'm sure they'll go for a more "top-of-the-line" version next year.

So, make this calendar a success! Buy it for yourself, for friends and family, for anyone interested in aviation that ya know!

In addition to the date, and the information nugget, there's also four lines for you to write notes. Three different month calendars in the top left hand corner, so you know what came before and what's going to come after day wise, etc.

Let's get wikified!

I've spent the day adding entries to the Women Aviators Wiki.

It's now up to 137 entries, and if I continue to work at the rate I'm doing now, should be 200 by next Monday, if not more.

Of course there are thousands of women pilots that need to be added, so if you'd like to take a hand, feel free.

If you're scared because you don't understand how a wiki works, just send me your info, and I'll "wikify" it for you. No problem.

I'm having fun working on it... And I'm a bit obsessive compulsive which is why I'm devoting so much time to it right now despite the fact that I've got my own stuff I should be doing... but that's what makes me me. The more work of my own I've got to do, the more I love to procrastinate by doing other things.

And this certainly is a worthy cause.

http://www.womenaviators.org/wiki

Pipped at the post again!

I had long intended to start a Women's Aviator Wiki, as an adjunct to my You Fly, Girl webzine, but I see that Women Fly, the company that puts out T-shirts featuring women pilots, has beaten me to it.

Here is the URL for the Wiki:
http://www.womenaviators.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

So far 72 pilots have been added. It needs more contributors, so let's all get together and give it a go!

Willa Brown (Chappell)

Read more about women pilots at Winged Victory: Women in Aviation webzine.

Willa Brown

Willa Brown does not have an entry at Wikipedia.

There is an entry on her at Black Wings: http://www.nasm.si.edu/interact/blackwings/hstudent/bio_brown.cfm, featuring an excerpt written about her by Enoch Waters, the city editor of the Chicago Defender, a black newspaper, in 1936. (The founder and editor of this paper in the early 1900s, Robert S. Abbott, also helped Bessie Coleman get the funds to travel to France to become the first African American woman to get a pilot's license.)

There is an entry for her at Women Aviatiors: http://womenaviators.org/WillaBrown.html
From her page there:
Willa was born on January 22, 1906 in Glasgow, Kentucky. She earned a B.A. from Indiana Teachers College (1927) and an M.B.A. from Northwestern University (1937). She enrolled in the Aeronautical University in Chicago and earned a Master Mechanic Certificate. On June 22, 1938, she earned her private pilot's license with a near perfect test score.

Willa was instrumental in establishing the Coffey School of Aeronautics. (In doing so, she fulfilled Bessie Coleman's ambition of a black owned private flight school.) As the president of the Chicago branch of the National Airmen’s Association of America, she led the successful fight to integrate African Americans into the U.S. Army Corps.

Promoted to the rank of Lieutenant, Willa became the first African American officer in the Civil Air Patrol. She was a member of the Federal Aviation Administration's Women's Advisory Board and became the first African American woman to earn a commercial pilot's license (i.e., so that she could fly passenger airplanes). In 1946 she became the first African American woman to run for Congress.

Willa Brown died in July of 1992.

Women wing walkers

Golden Age aerialists performing thrills for motion pictures and newsreels. Aviatrix footage of the of Mabel Cody, Lilian Boyer, Pancho Barnes, Bobbi Trout and Ninety-Nines aviatrix. See: http://www.americanbarnstormer.com

Only 19 seconds worth of footage here, but you get the idea...

Mary Regalbuto Jones

Mary Regalbuto Jones

No entry in Wikipedia

Obituary from the WASP website, Wings Across America
http://www.wingsacrossamerica.us/web/jones_mary.htm

Mary was born on November 16, 1922, in Cleveland, Ohio, Her parents were Carmela and Philip Regalbuto. She graduated from high school in 1941 and shortly afterwards started studying for her pilot's license.

In 1943, she enlisted in the WASP - the Women Airforce Service Pilots training program. She earned her wings the next year and was sent to the Waco Army Air Field in Waco, Texas, where she was an engineering test pilot.

Mary wed Erwin Jones in 1946 and began working in administrative, personnel and program management positions for the Federal Government.

She was elected in 1974 to serve on the American Airlines Board of Directors, the first woman to do so.

During her 33 years in Federal service, Jones received many awards and honors, including a letter of commendation from President Reagan.

She retired in 1981 and moved to Tulsa to enroll at Spartan School of Aeronautics, where she revalidated her pilot's license and became a sport and antique aviation enthusiast.

She owned and flew a 1941 Navy N3N-3 biplane trainer for 14 years.

Mary founded the First National Biplane Fly-In in Bartlesville in 1987, and she was awarded a Bachelor's Degree in Aviation Science from Oklahoma State University in 1997, when she was 75. (http://www.biplaneexpo.com/)

Obit at Wee Beastie Biplane works: http://www.weebeastie.com/hatzcb1/flown_west/mary_jones_wilkinson/mary_jones_wilkinson.html

Here's a photo of her in her biplane:
http://www.eaa10.org/Wilkinson/

Several photos from Wings Across America site, WASP of Oklahoma
http://community.webshots.com/album/30065095KVZuikKTDw

Support this site, not to mention literacy!

Documentary: Wings of their Own

I recieved a review copy today of Wings of Their Own, a documentary produced in 2006 which interviewed dozens of women pilots and told the story of some of the early pioneers.

Directed by Mary Scott,
Produced by Abby Dress and Mary Scott
http://www.makebelievetv.com/WingsOfTheirOwn.html

Here's some descriptive info from their website:

The production crew has interviewed over 150 women pilots, most of whom are Ninety-Nines, the renowned organization of women pilots founded by Faye Gillis Wells & Amelia Earhart in 1929, at Curtiss Field, Long Island. We have also worked with the Air Race Classic, Women in Aviation International, and Women Military Aviators.

These are women of distinction with fascinating stories to tell. Some are actual pioneers, who pursued aviation firsts, others are record holders, and many do it for fun or a career.

I'll be reviewing this DVD in a couple of days.

And I urge everyone reading this entry to support women in aviation, to encourage their daughters in aviation, and education their sons as to the role of women in aviation! So pick up this documentary - or at least request that your local library do so!

DVD First Screen


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