Tag: women aviators
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“I didn’t realize the sand was so deep; when I started to land, I buried the wheels.”
Or How Martha Almost Washed Out of WASP School… In 1996, Martha Wagenseil Davis (43-W-2) visited Ruth Franckling Reynolds (43-W-2) at the Reynolds family farm in the Catskills. It would be their last visit together. Photo Credit: Women in Pursuit (1993) by Kay Gott; page 205 by Margaret DiBenedetto Martha: In 1942 I wanted to…
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A WASP Warning, Ignored
By Margaret DiBenedetto The aircraft was headed on a bearing directly into the tallest skyscraper in New York City. The year was not 2001, but 1944. The building was not the North Tower, but the Empire State Building. The plane was not a commercial jetliner, but a P-47 Thunderbolt, flown by WASP Martha Wagenseil Davis.…
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Devyn Shared the Sky
By Margaret DiBenedetto and Nancy Reynolds A difficult constant of aviation is the prospect of mortality. A pilot knowingly takes the risk; it is part of the contract — not hidden in the fine print on the bottom, but in big bold letters at the top. Each individual weighs the decision from the very…
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A Pair of Trainers, A Pair of Friends
By Margaret DiBenedetto The Texan AT-6 was one of North American Aviation’s most successful training aircraft. Modified designs of the craft were used to train aerial combat pilots from World War II through the 1970’s. Equipped with a nose-mounted .30 caliber machine gun that fired through the propeller, the Basic Combat model, the BC-1, also…
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Ward and Ruth’s Halcott Airstrip
By Margaret DiBenedetto In 1945, Ward Reynolds was fresh out of the Army. During his tour he’d seen action in the Pacific Islands, had come back stateside and was in training to become an Army glider pilot when the war ended. Ward was born in Fleischmanns and grew up working on the family farm in…
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Hazel Lee’s Ultimate Sacrifice
By Margaret DiBenedetto The daughter of Chinese immigrants, Hazel Ah Ying Lee was born in Oregon in 1912. She obtained her pilot’s license in1931 at the age of 19. One of the oldest applicants, Hazel was accepted into the WASP class of 43-W-4. Fearless and calm, gregarious and funny, popular with her classmates. She…
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A Day in the Life of a WASP
By Margaret DiBenedetto In 1942, Teresa James had been a flight instructor and stunt pilot for nearly a decade, when she learned of a special program recruiting female pilots. She had more than 2,254 flight hours—far exceeding the required 500, and was accepted into the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron and assigned to New Castle…
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A Possibly Too-Succinct History of the WASP
By Margaret DiBenedetto The WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots) program began with a feud and ended, some might say, in abandonment. The program’s two years of existence was an experiment that yielded overwhelmingly positive and beneficial results, contributed undeniably to the US victory in WWII, and was short-sightedly terminated. Nancy Love and Jackie Cochran were…
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