This is not a time when women should be patient. We are in a war and we need to fight it with all our ability and ever weapon possible. WOMEN PILOTS, in this particular case, are a weapon waiting to be used.
Eleanor Roosevelt, 1942

A group of strong willed, independent, wonderful, kick-ass women

During World War 2, America, after Pearl Harbour, there were only about 1800 pilots. There was a need for pilots to do jobs such as ferrying aircraft from the production line to military bases, carrying troops, providing target practice for anti-aircraft guns, test pilots and trainers. As most of the men were not available, the government launched an experimental programme to train new pilots. The visionary and driving force behind this experiment was a remarkable woman called Jacqueline Cochran, a pioneering stunt pilot and racer who set more speed, altitude and distance records than any other pilot, male or female. This group of women became known as the Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASP (not WASPs, as the women are quick to point out, which would be like saying 'pilotss'!).

The idea of women being used had been mooted as early as 1941, but although there was a shortage of male pilots at that time, there was also a shortage of planes. By September 1942, a programme for women pilots was activated under the command of Nancy Harkess Love and was known as the WAFS (Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron) numbering around 28 pilots. It was recognised that the numbers of pilots would need to increase and that also they would need to be trained to fly a wide range of planes. 25 pilots, including Jacqueline Cochran were went to Britain (she was the first woman to fly a bomber across the Atlantic) to gain experience flying with the British Air Transport Auxiliary. Cochran then returned home to take charge of the women pilot training programme.

The objectives of the WASP programme were to see if women could serve as military pilots, to release men for fighting and to release men for other branches of the service.

There were around 3000 women with a private pilots licence. Cochran scoured the CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) records to locate women pilots and sent around 150 questionnaires out. In the end, around 25,000 women applied for the programme, including some who were summoned to appear for the selection programme. 1837 were selected and 1074 made the grade. It's interesting to note that the selection process was harder for the women than for men.

Emphasis would be put on developing good operational pilots rather than 'hot' pilots. The thinking was that an aircraft couldn't tell the difference between a man and a woman; only between good and bad pilots.

Zoot Suits and parachutes

Women who arrived at the first training courses were offered a choice between 42 inch and 44 inch flying suits (known as zoot suits), rather than the size 10 or 12 they might have expected.

Jobs they didn't want to waste the men on

We loved to fly

The myth that flying was a glamorous "long white scarf flying in the wind, breeze in your face" was just that--a myth. The routine was back-breaking, hard, dirty work. It strained every ounce of endurance and courage we could muster. The dust and sand ground into our clothes, the sun burned our skin to leathery brown and our hair to dry straw. There were days when we wondered, why not just quit and go home? Why didn't we? Not an easy question to answer!
Doris Tanner, WASP

Last class of Avenger Field

Mighty in spirit - continuing to inspire

Listen to the women of the WASP soundbytes¹.