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March is Women's History Month and I thought that was a good enough excuse to learn a bit about women's role in military aviation and in so doing, honor those brave trailblazers.
When we think of aviation in America, the Wright brothers instantly come to mind, but were you aware of the "the third Wright brother"? Katharine Wright, sister of Orville and Wilber had as much to do with the first flight at Kittyhawk as did her brothers!
Harriet Quimby was the first woman to be awarded a pilot's license in the U.S. (1911) and in 1912 was the first woman to fly across the English Channel.
During WWII, we had WASP pilots who flew every airplane made during WWII, yet were not considered military pilots. In fact, WASP pilot, Jacqueline Cochran broke the sound barrier in 1953, but the military continued to resist allowing women pilots.
In 1974 six women earned their wings, but not in the US Air Force -- it was the US Navy that took the first steps. The Army quickly followed suit in training female helicopter pilots, but it was not until 1976 that the Air Force admitted women to their training program and then there was a catch -- they would be limited to non-combat missions.
From 1976 to 1993 women pilots were kept out of the cockpits of combat aircraft - in actual combat. Even though they flew missions during Panama, Grenada and Desert Storm, their presence was inexplicably "excluded" from the records. The first woman pilot in the United States flew in 1911 and it only took 82 years for them to invade the sacrosanct area of combat aircraft.
Photo Blog of WASP & WAF Pilots
Marcy Hayes Ng was the first black woman military pilot.
Eileen Collins was the first woman to command a space shuttle mission (1999).
Major Marie T. Rossi was the first woman pilot to die while flying in a combat zone when the Chinook helicopter she was piloting crashed near her base in northern Saudia Arabia on March 1, 1991 during Desert Storm.
Lt. Col. Martha McSally was among the first women trained by the Air Force as a fighter pilot.While stationed in Kuwait between 1995-96, she became the first woman to fly a combat sortie in a fighter aircraft. She also flew more than 100 combat hours on an A-10 Warthog attack plane over Iraq in the mid-1990s, and served as a flight commander and trainer of combat pilots.
Major Nicole Malachowski is the first female pilot selected to fly with the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds (2006).
Today woman are filling aircrew positions as bomber pilots, navigators, tanker pilots, weapons officers, loadmasters and varied officer and enlisted aircrew positions.
In the 2004 Air Force 19.6 % of the force was female.
*18.2 percent of the officers were women and 20 percent of the enlisted corps was women.
* 60.2 percent of the female officers are line officers; 39.8 percent are non-line.
*The population of women in the Air Force was 73,074.
* Women first began entering pilot training in 1976, fighter pilot training in July 1993 and navigator training in 1977.
*2004 there were 519 (3.8 percent) female pilots and 195 (4.1 percent) female navigators and over 600 enlisted crew members.
Women first began entering pilot training in 1976, fighter pilot training in July 1993 and navigator training in 1977.
Currently - 2005-06 - there are 568 (4.1 percent) female pilots and 210 (4.6 percent) female navigators. ~ Source