This Day in Women's Aviation

Today is Friday, September 10, 2010 1:49 PM

1942 - U.S. Secretary of War Henry Stinson named Nancy Harkness Love, 28, director of the newly formed 25 member Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron. Jackie Cochran would soon be appointed to direct the Flying Training Program, which tapped a valuable human resource to perform non-combat flying wartime missions during World War II.

1942 - Over the next 5 days, 31 of the most highly qualified women aviators in the U.S. would enter the Air Corp Ferry Command at New Castle Air Field in Wilmington, Delaware to begin service in the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron under the direction of Nancy Harkness Love. After 6 weeks of military orientation, 28 would be accepted as ferry pilots. Initial requirements were a commercial pilot's license and over 500 flight hours logged.

1951 - Air race pilot Claire McMillen [Walters] and her copilot Frances Bera landed in Detroit to win the annual All-Women’s air derby, sharing the $850 first prize. Claire and twin sister Betty McMillen Loufek, also an air racer, would author a book, “This Flying Life: the Story of Claire L. Walters and Friends,” which chronicles Claire’s flight adventures and racing in the “Powder Puff Derbies.”

1996 - Helen Gardiner became the first female Royal Air Force combat pilot to carry out a live intercept with unfriendly aircraft. She removed Russian intruders from Britain's skies after two maritime patrol aircraft were spotted off the Shetlands spying on a major NATO military exercise. As soon as the Russians spotted her jet, they turned for home with Helen and her navigator escorting them out of the area.

1997 - With the help of a hot air balloon, Judy Leden and Lucy Armour set a new altitude record of 16,800 feet for two-place hang-gliders.

2008 - Marilyn Dash, 46, of Hayward, California, was among more than 150 pilots (and only four women) competing in six classes of aircraft--from biplanes to jets--when the National Championship Air Races opened in Reno, Nevada. Marilyn, who took her first flying lesson 9 years earlier on her 37th birthday, would tear around pylons at 180 miles per hour, 50 feet off the ground in her bright red Pitts S1S biplane called "Ruby."