The Ninety-Nines
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Organizations, Honors and Races
All Aviation and Space
Women Pilots
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Women in AviationWithin a couple of years after aircraft designers (first the Wright brothers, swiftly followed by other Americans as well as Europeans) perfected craft that the average adventurous individual could fly, women wanted to get in on the action.This being the early 1900s, they faced opposition - not only from men (including flight instructors) but also from women who believed that woman's place was in the home. However, adventurous women did not let society's disapproval deter them, and a handful of women around the world earned their pilot's licenses before 1914. (And despite society disapproval, they were great draws at the various air shows in which they appeared.) At this point, about 6% of licensed pilots were women. During World War I civilians were not allowed to fly, so of course there were no new women pilots. At war's end, thousands of male pilots who had flown for the military became civilians. The war had caused a considerable acceleration in the development of aircraft technology, as well as quite a few surplus aircraft on the market at war's end. Most women who had learned to fly before the war did not resume their aviation careers for a variety of reasons. But a new generation of women were ready and eager to learn. 1929 and the Founding of the 99s
Jump forward ten years. Many women - though not as many as men - had learned to fly. In the United States, many women were actually encouraged to take flying lessons during college and join the Civil Air Patrol.
Eventually, women pilots in England were allowed to serve their country as part of a ferry service called the ATF. After a struggle, American women formed the Women Air Force Service Pilots, or WASP. In late 1944, when America's military leaders knew the war was all but won, the WASP were disbanded, told "thanks," and told to go home. (The women who were members of the WASP had had to pay their own way to get to the WASP training airbases; their families had to pay to ship home the bodies and for the funerals of the 38 women who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country; and the surviving women, over a thousand of them, had to pay their own way home after the WASP were disbanded.) Even the "Night Witches" of Russia were summarily dismissed - male soldiers returning home needed jobs. After World War II ended in 1945, over a thousand women had pilot's licenses. A few of these women, some of whom were former WASP, tried to get jobs as pilots in commercial aviation but were turned down.
All Woman Air Shows
1947In 1947, some members of a Florida chapter of the 99s decided to hold an All Woman Air show. They invited members of a California chapter to hold a cross country air race to Tampa, Florida in order to publicize the event. In the end, only two pilots could get hold of planes on such short notice, and only one actually finished the race, the other withdrawing because of engine trouble.
1948
1963
1967
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