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Ladies in Leather
- Thread starter Andrew
- Start date
Miles_Archer
Member
Re: Ladies in A-2's
My great aunt was a ferry pilot during WWII. I'll see if I can get my father to send me some snaps of her wearing her A-2.
My great aunt was a ferry pilot during WWII. I'll see if I can get my father to send me some snaps of her wearing her A-2.
A
Anonymous
Guest
Re: Ladies in A-2's
There is nothing drooping in that pic!
There is nothing drooping in that pic!
A
Anonymous
Guest
A
Anonymous
Guest
Andrew
Well-Known Member
You learn something new everyday.... I found this really interesting. We've all seen Tora Tora Tora. Apparently she was the inspiration for the flight instructor scene.
CORNELIA FORT
At the Twilight's Last Gleaming By Cornelia Fort
(originally published in the Ladies Home Companion, July 1943)
"I knew I was going to join the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron before the organization was a reality, before it had a name, before it was anything but a radical idea in the minds of a few men who believed that women could fly airplanes. But I never knew it so surely as I did in Honolulu on December 7, 1941.
At dawn that morning I drove from Waikiki to the John Rodgers civilian airport right next to Pearl Harbor where I was a pilot instructor. Shortly after six-thirty I began landing and take-off practice with my regular student. Coming in just before the last landing, I looked casually around and saw a military plane coming directly toward me. I jerked the controls away from my student and jammed the throttle wide open to pull above the oncoming plane. He passed so close under us that our celluloid windows rattled violently and I looked down to see what kind of plane it was.
The painted red balls on the tops of the wings shone brightly in the sun. I looked again with complete and utter disbelief. Honolulu was familiar with the emblem of the Rising Sun on passenger ships but not on airplanes. I looked quickly at Pearl Harbor and my spine tingled when I saw billowing black smoke. Still I thought hollowly it might be some kind of coincidence or maneuvers, it might be, it must be. For surely, dear God ...
Then I looked way up and saw the formations of silver bombers riding in. Something detached itself from an airplane and came glistening down. My eyes followed it down, down and even with knowledge pounding in my mind, my heart turned convulsively when the bomb exploded in the middles of the harbor. I knew the air was not the place for my little baby airplane and I set about landing as quickly as ever I could. A few seconds later a shadow passed over me and simultaneously bullets spattered all around me.
Suddenly that little wedge of sky above Hickam Field and Pearl Harbor was the busiest fullest pieces of sky I ever saw. We counted anxiously as our little civilian planes came flying home to roost. Two never came back. They were washed ashore weeks later on the windward side of the island, bullet-riddled. Not a pretty way for the brave little yellow Cubs and their pilots to go down to death...."
"Ms. Cornelia Fort was working as a civilian pilot instructor at Pearl Harbor on the very day the Japanese attacked the island. She was the second woman to join the WAFS and became the first WAFS fatality when she was killed in March 1943.
Ms. Fort was the daughter of a prominent Tennessee family, had attended Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, N.Y., and was a flying instructor in Hawaii (she was in the air with a student when the Japanese came over Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941). Her two brothers were in the U.S. Army. She learned to fly in Nashville and first soloed on April 27, 1940. She received a private pilot's license on June 19, 1940, and an instructor's rating on March 10, 1941. She then became a flight instructor for the Massey and Rawson Flying Service, Fort Collins, Colo., taking part in the Civilian Pilot Training Program.
The WAFS suffered their first fatal accident when Ms. Fort's BT-13A, serial number 42-42432, collided in mid-air with another plane. Her plane crashed after the collision, was entirely demolished, and she was killed. The other (male) pilot was unhurt. Both pilots were stationed at the 6th Ferrying Group base at Long Beach, Calif., although the accident took place 10 miles south of Merkel, Texas, on March 21, 1943. At the time of the accident, Ms. Fort was one of the most accomplished pilots of the WAFS and had some 1,100 hours to her credit."
CORNELIA FORT
At the Twilight's Last Gleaming By Cornelia Fort
(originally published in the Ladies Home Companion, July 1943)
"I knew I was going to join the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron before the organization was a reality, before it had a name, before it was anything but a radical idea in the minds of a few men who believed that women could fly airplanes. But I never knew it so surely as I did in Honolulu on December 7, 1941.
At dawn that morning I drove from Waikiki to the John Rodgers civilian airport right next to Pearl Harbor where I was a pilot instructor. Shortly after six-thirty I began landing and take-off practice with my regular student. Coming in just before the last landing, I looked casually around and saw a military plane coming directly toward me. I jerked the controls away from my student and jammed the throttle wide open to pull above the oncoming plane. He passed so close under us that our celluloid windows rattled violently and I looked down to see what kind of plane it was.
The painted red balls on the tops of the wings shone brightly in the sun. I looked again with complete and utter disbelief. Honolulu was familiar with the emblem of the Rising Sun on passenger ships but not on airplanes. I looked quickly at Pearl Harbor and my spine tingled when I saw billowing black smoke. Still I thought hollowly it might be some kind of coincidence or maneuvers, it might be, it must be. For surely, dear God ...
Then I looked way up and saw the formations of silver bombers riding in. Something detached itself from an airplane and came glistening down. My eyes followed it down, down and even with knowledge pounding in my mind, my heart turned convulsively when the bomb exploded in the middles of the harbor. I knew the air was not the place for my little baby airplane and I set about landing as quickly as ever I could. A few seconds later a shadow passed over me and simultaneously bullets spattered all around me.
Suddenly that little wedge of sky above Hickam Field and Pearl Harbor was the busiest fullest pieces of sky I ever saw. We counted anxiously as our little civilian planes came flying home to roost. Two never came back. They were washed ashore weeks later on the windward side of the island, bullet-riddled. Not a pretty way for the brave little yellow Cubs and their pilots to go down to death...."
"Ms. Cornelia Fort was working as a civilian pilot instructor at Pearl Harbor on the very day the Japanese attacked the island. She was the second woman to join the WAFS and became the first WAFS fatality when she was killed in March 1943.
Ms. Fort was the daughter of a prominent Tennessee family, had attended Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, N.Y., and was a flying instructor in Hawaii (she was in the air with a student when the Japanese came over Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941). Her two brothers were in the U.S. Army. She learned to fly in Nashville and first soloed on April 27, 1940. She received a private pilot's license on June 19, 1940, and an instructor's rating on March 10, 1941. She then became a flight instructor for the Massey and Rawson Flying Service, Fort Collins, Colo., taking part in the Civilian Pilot Training Program.
The WAFS suffered their first fatal accident when Ms. Fort's BT-13A, serial number 42-42432, collided in mid-air with another plane. Her plane crashed after the collision, was entirely demolished, and she was killed. The other (male) pilot was unhurt. Both pilots were stationed at the 6th Ferrying Group base at Long Beach, Calif., although the accident took place 10 miles south of Merkel, Texas, on March 21, 1943. At the time of the accident, Ms. Fort was one of the most accomplished pilots of the WAFS and had some 1,100 hours to her credit."
zoomer
Well-Known Member
Tranq, what is the class A type uniform in your pic with the ATC patched jackets? Is that the WASP uniform? (According to this page they only had one class A, a deep blue in color, but it was sometimes an Ike jacket.)
Also note the planes in your next pic - Curtiss Helldivers, but meant for the Army as A-25s. The AAF had given up dive bombing, so these were used only stateside in training roles.
Also note the planes in your next pic - Curtiss Helldivers, but meant for the Army as A-25s. The AAF had given up dive bombing, so these were used only stateside in training roles.
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