Women entering a male dominated sphere for the first time will always encounter difficulties. Some of these problems relate to the physical or physiological attributes of the women themselves.
Others relate to the attitudes of the men whose world they wish to enter. The Royal Australian Air Force has recently its seen its first females break into one of the last bastions of male domination left in today’s military - the fast jet world.
Others relate to the attitudes of the men whose world they wish to enter. The Royal Australian Air Force has recently its seen its first females break into one of the last bastions of male domination left in today’s military - the fast jet world.
Women's contributions to aviation have been long overlooked. Since the early days of aviation, women have been active participants in aviation. Opportunities for women in aviation did not come easily; they were based on decades of struggle, determination, and perseverance.The history of women in aviation epitomizes significant contributions too numerous to detail within the scope of this study. However, if women had been fully admitted into the field of aviation, the achievements they could have realized are especially apparent among the ranks of pilots and those who educate pilots. For women in aviation throughout the world, the pioneer spirit remains strong. The words of the famous aviatrix Jacqueline Cochran take on added significance since they were written almost forty years ago:
Earthbound souls know only that underside of the atmosphere in which they
live…but go higher up—above the dust and water vapor—and the sky turns dark
and, up high enough, one can see the stars at noon. I have.
Facts
Women have been involved in aviation since its earliest days. From E. Lillian Todd, who designed and built aircraft in 1906 to Helen Richey, who became the first woman pilot for a U.S. commercial airline in 1934, woman have assumed a variety of roles in the industry. At the close of the 20th century, Astronaut Eileen Collins became the first female Space Shuttle Commander.
During the last two decades, the number of women involved in the aviation industry has steadily increased and women can be found in nearly every aviation occupation today. However, the numbers are small by comparison. Women pilots, for example, represent only six percent of the total pilot population he concept of flying women is not new. A brief look back at the history books tells us that women played a large role in the early history of aviation. Early pioneers included the Wright Brothers sister Katharine, Harriet Quimby in her purple satin flying suit who was the first woman to fly the channel, and household names such as Amelia Earhart and Amy Johnson. Australia even had it’s own pioneer aviatrix, the aptly named Nancy Bird, who learned to fly in 1933 at the age of 17 and flew for one of this country’s earliest airborne ambulance services.
Women have also played a major part in the military in general, however the role of female aviators in Western militaries has been an area of politics and controversy, particularly when enough men were available to do the job. Despite this, thousands of female pilots were called upon in World War 2 to fill vacant cockpits and free men for fighting duties.
In the US, the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) based at Avenger Field, Sweetwater, Texas kept the home planes flying from 1943. Eventually over 2 000 women flew over 70 aircraft types in non-combat roles, mostly performing ferrying, training and transport duties. Seventy of these women were killed or injured whilst flying, but it was not until 1977 that the WASPs were granted Veterans status by Congress.
The British kept women aviators out of uniform but had them fulfilling similar functions to the WASPs as part of the civilian Air Transport Auxiliary. It wasn’t until 1952 that the first female RAF pilot, Jean Bird, a reservist, was given her full set of wings. By this time she had been flying for 20 years, had over 300 hours on 90 aircraft types and had a Senior Commercial Pilot’s licence. In fact she had more experience than most of the instructors who trained her for her wings.
Unfortunately the WAAFVR, the only arm of the military in which these women could serve, was disbanded in 1957 due to an early Defence reform program. The Russians were far more progressive in World War 2, allowing women to fly in a combat role and creating entire female bomber and fighter regiments.
After the war, the surplus of fully qualified male pilots meant that women, who were still unable to take on a combat role, were relegated back to their "proper" positions as wives and mothers. The one exception to this was the USSR who continued to allow women to fly and in 1962 put the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova.
The role of females in society gradually changed over subsequent years and in the 1970s female aviators once again began training in Western Defence Forces. In
the late seventies and early eighties the Canadians conducted the "Servicewomen in Non-traditional Roles" (SWINTER) study, culminating in the first female CF-18 pilots undergoing training in 1987. The US soon followed and now most Western militaries allow women to fly all aircraft types.
Australia lagged a little behind in this area. Some women apparently managed to slip the shackles and fly in the UK during the war with the ATA, but our first female military pilots did not graduate until 1988. Fast jets were opened to women in 1995, however the first candidate unfortunately failed Introductory Fighter Course (IFC). In 1997 an ex transport pilot passed IFC and commenced F-111 conversion however opted out of finishing training. 1999 saw two firsts - the first Australian female military aerobatic pilot and the graduation of the first female F-111 navigators who became the first Australian female fast jet aircrew..
Background Literature
Since the early days of aviation, women have been active participants in aviation and aviation education. Opportunities for women in aviation did not come easily. They were based on decades of struggle, determination, and perseverance. One of the most famous figures in aviation history is Amelia Earhart. She won early acclaim by becoming the first woman to fly across the Atlantic in 1928; however, her success was marred by the fact that two male pilots had actually been at the controls throughout the flight, even though she was a qualified pilot. Earhart compensated for this by achieving many record-breaking flights and she eventually flew solo across the Atlantic in May, 1932. She was lost at sea while attempting to fly around the world in 1937.
A year later, another women pilot, Lores Bonney, flew solo from Brisbane, Australia, to London—about five times as far as Earhart‟s trip across the Atlantic. Because she was not trying for a speed record and she did not have as good a publicist as Earhart, her flight was unacclaimed and forgotten over time. There was little notice taken of her remarkable feat; this may have been because of the culture of the day and believed a woman's place was “in the home”.
Women like Amelia Earhart and Jacqueline Cochran were highly visible and continually earned kudos and criticism, but most women in early aviation posed an economic threat to the men. Any failure was used to prove they were physically and emotionally unfit for flying. Ironically, if they survived an accident, it was used to show that air travel was safe.
Women have been active in aviation and aviation education since the beginning of flight. Katherine Wright, sister of Orville and Wilbur, helped finance “man‟s” first flight. Katherine contributed to their scientific pool of knowledge and to their bank account through their struggle to conquer flight. Almost every historian credits her with using the money she earned teaching Latin and Greek to purchase the materials for their fragile airplanes.
Ever since that infamous day, women have also been caught up in the “spirit of flight”; unfortunately, few women had the economic means or society‟s approval of furthering their interest in this area. Influential persons in aviation were aware of women‟s efforts and accomplishments and could have helped to expand the roles of women in aviation, but they were surprisingly restrictive in their views. For example, Eddie Rickenbacker took the executives of Boeing to task in 1930 for hiring the first female flight attendants. He argued that flying was a man's occupation and should stay that way.
Women in Aviation: TIMELINE
1784 - Elisabeth Thible becomes the first woman to fly - in a hot air balloon
1798 - Jeanne Labrosse is the first woman to solo in a balloon
1809 - Marie Madeleine Sopie Blanchard becomes the first woman to lose her life while flying - she was watching fireworks in her hydrogen balloon
1851 - "Mademoiselle Delon" ascends in a balloon in Philadelphia.
1880 - July 4 - Mary Myers is the first American woman to solo in a balloon
1903 - Aida de Acosta is the first woman to solo in a dirigible
1906 - E. Lillian Todd is the first woman to design and build an airplane, though it never flew
1908 - Madame Therese Peltier is the first woman to fly an airplane solo
1910 - Baroness Raymonde de Laroche obtains a license from the Aero Club of France, the first woman in the world to earn a pilot's license
1910 - September 2 - Blanche Stuart Scott, without permission or knowledge of Glenn Curtiss, the airplane's owner and builder, removes a small wood wedge and is able to get the airplane airborne -- without any flying lessons -- thus becoming the first American woman to pilot an airplane
1910 - October 13 - Bessica Raiche's flight qualifies her, for some, as the first woman pilot in America -- because some discount the flight of Scott as accidental and therefore deny her this credit
1911 - August 11 - Harriet Quimby becomes the first American woman licensed pilot
1911 - September 4 - Harriet Quimby becomes the first woman to fly at night
1912 - April 16 - Harriet Quimby becomes the first woman to pilot her own aircraft across the English Channel
1913 - Alys McKey Bryant is the first woman pilot in Canada
1916 - Ruth Law sets two American records flying from Chicago to New York
1918 - The US postmaster general approves the appointment of Marjorie Stinson as the first female airmail pilot
1919 - Ruth Law becomes the first person to fly air mail in the Phillipines
1921 - Adrienne Bolland is the first woman to fly over the Andes
1921 - Bessie Coleman becomes the first African American, male or female, to earn a pilot's license
1922 - Lillian Gatlin is the first woman to fly across America as a passenger
1928 - June 17 - Amelia Earhart is the first woman to fly across the Atlantic -- Lou Gordon and Wilmer Stultz did most of the flying
1929 - August - first Women's Air Derby is held, and Louise Thaden wins, Gladys O'Donnell takes second place and Amelia Earhart takes third
1929 - Florence Lowe Barnes - Pancho Barnes - becomes the first woman stunt pilot in motion pictures (in "Hell's Angels")
1929 - Amelia Earhart becomes the first president of the Ninety-Nines, an organization of women pilots.
1930 - May 5-24 - Amy Johnson becomes the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia
1930 - Anne Morrow Lindbergh becomes the first woman to earn a glider pilot license
1931 - Ruth Nichols fails in her attempt to fly solo across the Atlantic, but she breaks the world distance record flying from California to Kentucky
1931 - Katherine Cheung becomes the first woman of Chinese ancestry to earn a pilot's license
1932 - May 20-21 - Amelia Earhart is the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic
1932 - Ruthy Tu becomes first woman pilot in the Chinese Army
1934 - Helen Richey becomes the first woman pilot hired by a regularly schedule airline, Central Airlines
1934 - Jean Batten is the first woman to fly round trip England to Australia
1935- January 11-23 - Amelia Earhart is the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to the American mainland
1936 - Beryl Markham becomes the first woman to fly across the Atlantic east to west
1936 - Louise Thaden and Blance Noyes beat male pilots also entered in the Bendix Trophy Race, the first victory of women over men in a race which both men and women could enter
1937 - July 2 - Amelia Earhart lost over Pacific
1938 - Hanna Reitsch becomes the first woman to fly a helicopter and the first woman to be licensed as a helicopter pilot
1939 - Willa Brown, first African American commercial pilot and first African American woman officer in the Civil Air Patrol, helps form the National Airmen's Association of America to help open up the U.S. Armed Forces to African American men
1939 - January 5 - Amelia Earhart declared legally dead
1939 - September 15 - Jacqueline Cochran sets an international speed record; the same year, she is the first woman to make a blind landing
1941 - July 1 - Jacqueline Cochrane is the first woman to ferry a bomber across the Atlantic
1941 - Marina Raskova appointed by Soviet Union high command to organize regiments of women pilots
1942 - Nancy Harkness Love and Jackie Cochran organize women flying units and training detachments
1943 - Women make up more than 30% of the work force in the aviation industry
1943 - Love's and Cochran's units are merged into the Women Airforce Service Pilots and Jackie Cochran becomes the Director of Women Pilots -- WASPs flew more than 60 million miles before the program ended in December 1944, with only 38 lives lost of 1830 volunteers and 1074 graduates -- these pilots were seen as civilians and were only recognized as military personnel in 1977
1945 - Melitta Schiller is awarded the Iron Cross and Military Flight Badge in Germany
1953 - Jacqueline (Jackie) Cochran becomes first woman to break the sound barrier
1964 - March 19 - Geraldine (Jerrie) Mock is the first woman to pilot a plane around the world
1973 - January 29 - Emily Howell Warner is the first woman working as a pilot for a commercial airline (Frontier Airlines)
1973 - U.S. Navy announces pilot training for women
1974 - Mary Barr becomes the first woman pilot with the Forest Service
1974 - June 4 - Sally Murphy is the first woman to qualify as an aviator with the U.S. Army
1977 - November - Congress passes a bill recognizing WASP pilots of World War II as military personnel, and President Jimmy Carter signs the bill into law
1978 - International Society of Women Airline pilots formed
1980 - Lynn Rippelmeyer becomes the first woman to pilot a Boeing 747
1984 - on July 18, Beverly Burns becomes the first woman to captain a 747 cross country, and Lynn Rippelmeyer becomes the first woman to captain a 747 across the Atlantic -- sharing the honor, thereby, of being the first female 747 captains
1994 - Vicki Van Meter is the youngest pilot (to that date) to fly across the Atlantic in a Cessna 210 - she is 12 years old at the time of the flight
1994 - April 21 - Jackie Parker becomes the first woman to qualify to fly an F-16 combat plane
2001 - Polly Vacher becomes the first woman to fly around the world in a small plane - she flies from England to England on a route that includes Australia
2012 - Liu Yang becomes the first woman launched by China into space.
Women Making Aviation History Today
Marta Bohn-Meyer, First Woman Crewmember to Fly on the SR-71
Eileen Collins, First Woman Space Shuttle Pilot and Commander
Jane F. Garvey, First Woman FAA Administrator
Diane Hakala, 1997 National Aerobatic Champion
Carol Hallett, President and CEO, Air Transport Association
Evelyn Bryan, Johnson Flight Instructing and Serving as FAA Designated Flight Examiner at 90 Years of Age
Martha King, First Woman to Obtain Every Flight and Ground Instructor Rating
Deborah McCoy, First Woman Vice President of Flight Operations for an Airline
Jennifer Murray, First Woman to Fly a Helicopter around the World
Carroll Suggs, President and CEO, Petroleum Helicopters, Inc. (largest corporate/charter helicopter business in U.S.)
Patty Wagstaff, National Aerobatic Champion (three consecutive times)
This analysis has barely touched on the key contributions early aviatrixes made to aviation; there are many, many names of early women pilots and aviation educators not listed here. Women made invaluable contributions to aviation during WWII and beyond that are not within the scope of this review; however, some of these data are available in a dissertation cited in the references. It is vital that the message about these courageous early pioneers be disseminated in all arenas, but especially in our schools and colleges.
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More power to your left and right elbows ladies. The inspirational stories of previous generations Colman, Cochran, WASPs; Rosie the Riveters, are augmented by those who followed their lead Eileen Collins, Christine Mau,Caroline Jensen, Catherine Labuschagne to name a few. In a better society they would be the icons and their jobs -the X-Factor goal for girls. Oh well!
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