Woman Aviation

In 1961, Wally Funk was among the Mercury 13, the first group of American pilots to pass the ‘Women in Space’ programme. Wally sailed through a series of rigorous physical and mental tests, her scores beating many of the male candidates, including those of John Glenn, the first American in orbit. But just one week before she was due to enter the final phase of training, the programme was abruptly cancelled. A combination of politics and prejudice meant that none of the women ever flew into space.

In 1993, U.S. women earned the right to fly in combat, but the full story of how it happened is largely unknown. The Fly Girls Revolt chronicles the actions of a band of women who overcame decades of discrimination and prevailed against bureaucrats, chauvinists, anti-feminists, and even other military women. Drawing on extensive research, interviews with women who served in the 1970s and 1980s, and her personal experiences in the Air Force, Eileen Bjorkman weaves together a tale of the women who fought for the right to enter combat and be treated as equal partners in the U.S. military.

Before Amelia Earhart (1897-1939) became a world-famous pilot, she was a little tomboy from Kansas with a taste for adventure. When she visited an airfield and took a short plane ride, she knew she had to be a pilot. She signed up for flying lessons and cropped her hair short so that the other pilots would take her seriously. She became the first woman to make a solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean.

Daring aviators take the skies by storm in this historical romance filled with unconventional women - and the men strong enough to love them.

Previously published as Propelling Beyond Barriers: Evelyn Sharp, No Ordinary Girl by Glenda K Clare Small town girl, Evelyn Sharp — a real warrior — wowed the world with her incredible aviation skills. As a young girl, Evelyn was an energetic young girl who dreamed of becoming a pilot. After school, she trained for hours every day, even in the cold winter, and made many sacrifices to pursue her goals. This young woman went from being a kid growing up in Nebraska to the youngest licensed female pilot in America and the first air postal carrier. She pushed past cultural barriers and ...

Before Amelia Earhart, there was Sophie Blanchard, the first woman to earn her living in the air. While no one knows the fate of Earhart, a terrified crowd of thousands looked on as French aeronaut Sophie Blanchard met her end in a tragic blaze of glory over the streets of Paris in 1819.

Amelia Earhart (Atchinson, 1898-Pacífico Sur, 1937). Cuando volar un avión era un acto más que temerario, Amelia Earhart fue la primera mujer que cruzó el Atlántico y el Pacífico en solitario. Además de sus hazañas como piloto, escribió tres libros y muchos artículos con los relatos de sus viajes y se convirtió en una de las principales promotoras de la aviación.

Amelia Torres es un ama de casa que está a punto de ganar La mujer ideal, el concurso de televisión del momento. Lo que está en juego es un suculento premio que puede cambiar su vida... y la de su marido Armando, que quiere comprarse un apartamento en Torremolinos..., y la de su hija Carmen, que quiere una vespa..., e incluso la de su madre Victorina, que quiere un televisor... Todos en su familia quieren que gane, pero ¿qué desea realmente Amelia?

In the 1930s, most girls were happy playing with dolls. But one girl, Betty Skelton, liked playing with airplanes, watching them fly around outside, and even flying airplanes herself! She lived for an adventure - in the air, the water, and on land - and nothing could stop her, especially not being a girl. When Betty Skelton was young there weren't many women flying airplanes or racing cars, but she wouldn't let that stop her. She was always ready to take on a challenge, and she loved to have fun.

Dorothy Lucas yearned to discover all that she was capable of. After the devastating news of Pearl Harbor, her brothers joined the World War II war effort, but Dorothy wanted to do her part, too. So, she enlisted to serve as a Women Airforce Service Pilot (WASP). After hours of flight school and roaring engines, Dorothy and her fellow WASPs risked their lives towing targets in the air for the male fighter pilots in training. Through many mechanical scares and smoke-filled cockpits, Dorothy remained brave and committed to her job - defying gravity and defying the odds.

Emma Lilian Todd's mind was always soaring—she loved to solve problems. Lilian tinkered and fiddled with all sorts of objects, turning dreams into useful inventions. As a child, she took apart and reassembled clocks to figure out how they worked. As an adult, typing up patents at the U.S. Patent Office, Lilian built the inventions in her mind, including many designs for flying machines. However, they all seemed too impractical. Lilian knew she could design one that worked.

When Diane Diekman became an aviation maintenance officer (a “greenshirt”) in the US Navy in 1978, her challenges included proving herself professionally before gaining the acceptance and respect routinely granted to men. Navy Greenshirt: A Leader Made, Not Born is the story of a female pioneer in the male-dominated world of naval aviation. The commanding officer of her first squadron fired her when she failed his hidden test to assert herself as a leader. That painful lesson strengthened the timid South Dakota farm girl and helped define her future leadership style.

Before she traveled the country speaking out against discrimination, Bessie was a little girl with a big imagination that took her to the sky, through the clouds, and past the birds. Knocking down barriers one by one, Bessie endured racism and grueling training to become the first Black female pilot and an inspiration to Mae Jemison, Josephine Baker, and many more influential people of color for years to come.

It all began when we decided to get an airplane. I looked forward to riding with my husband over the countryside and enjoying the scenery. But one day he dropped the bomb. He told me I would need to learn to fly the plane, because, should something happen to him up there, I would have to put it on the ground. I began waking up at night silently screaming because I felt I was flying out of control up there with no way of getting the plane down. We ordered the Ground School materials, and thus the journey began.