Test pilots were not always men. These four women, members of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs), were assigned as engineering test pilots, testing new aircraft and modifications. The airplane behind them is a North American Aviation B-25 Mitchell twin-engine medium bomber. From left to right, Dorothy Dodd Eppstein, Hellen Skjersaa Hansen, Doris Burmeister Nathan and Elizabeth V. Chadwick Dressler. (U.S. Air Force)
5 August 1943: The U.S. Army Air Forces’ Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) under the direction of Nancy Harkeness Love, and the Women’s Flying Training Detachment, led by Jacqueline (“Jackie”) Cochran, are combined to form the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs). General Henry H. (“Hap”) Arnold assigned Jackie Cochran as the Director. Nancy Love was named executive for WASP ferrying operations.
Cochran, Jacqueline (“Jackie”), Director, Women Airforce Service Pilots. (National Archives and Records Administration 4A-23096-K1210)
Cochran had previously served as a Flight Captain with the Royal Air Force Air Transport Auxiliary. After a period of six months, she had returned to the United States at the request of General Arnold, where she served on his staff. In June 1942, she became the first first woman to fly a bomber across the Atlantic Ocean when she ferried a Lockheed Hudson from Canada to Scotland.
Nancy Harkness Love in WASP uniform. The shoulder insignia are those of the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron. (Texas Woman’s University Women Airforce Service Pilots – Official Archive, BornDigital.HOMalone.3)
WASP recruits had to be between 21 and 35 years old, in good health, be a high school graduate, and have a pilot’s license with a minimum of 200 hours flight time. The WASPs received more than 25,000 applications. Of these, 1,879 were accepted. They received four months of military flight training at Avenger Field, Sweetwater, Texas. Their training was essentially the same primary, basic and advanced training as Army Air Forces pilots. On graduation they received a commercial pilot certificate. 1,074 graduated from training.
WASP pilots were not military personnel. They were civil service employees of the federal government. Trainees were paid $150 per month, and graduates, $250. They received a allowance of $6 per day when away from their assigned base. The women were required to pay for their quarters and meals.
Women Airforce Service Pilots dress uniform. (National Air and Space Museum)
WASP dress uniforms consisted of a jacket and skirt of Santiago Blue wool, two-ply gabardine, and a beret made of the same material. They wore a white shirt with a black tie. Insignia were gold-colored.
WASP pilots Frances Green, Margaret Kirchner, Ann Waldner and Blanche Osborne at the four-engine school at Lockbourne Army Airfield, Ohio, with a Boeing B-17. (U.S. Air Force)
WASPs ferried aircraft from the manufacturers’ factories to military bases, towed targets, and flew airplanes for training bombardiers and navigators. More than 100 of the women, on graduation, were sent directly to a nine-week transition training course on the Martin B-26 Marauder twin-engine medium bomber, and airplane with a reputation of being difficult to fly.
Four members of the United States Women’s Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) receive final instructions as they chart a cross-country course on the flight line of U.S. airport. Assigned to the ferrying division of the United States Army Air Transport Command, the women pilots belong to the first class of American women to complete a rigorous nine-week transitional flight training course in handling B-26 Marauder medium bombers. They have been given special assignments with the U.S. Army Air Forces as tow target pilots. (National Archives and Records Administration NARA-535781)WASP Ruth Ellen Dailey with a Lockheed P-38 Lightning. (U.S. Air Force)Florene Miller, one of the original members of Nancy Love’s Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron, preparing a North American Aviation P-51D Mustang for a ferry flight from the factory at Inglewood, California. (U.S. Air Force)
They ferried P-38 Lightnings, P-47 Thunderbolts, P-51 Mustangs, B-17 Flying Fortresses, B-25 Mitchells, and many other types. Some were involved in testing newly-built aircraft, and few served as test pilots at Wright Field, where one, Ann Gilpin Baumgartner, flew the Bell XP-59A Airacomet. Two WASPS, Dora Jean Dougherty and Dorothea Johnson Moorman, were trained to fly the B-29 Superfortress. During the war, 38 WASPs died in service.
Lieutenant Colonel Paul W. Tibbets with WASP pilots Dorothea Johnson Moorman and Dora Jean Dougherty, at Eglin Field, June 1944. (U.S. Air Force)
As the need for combat pilots lessened in the latter part of World War II, Army Air Forces pilots began to take over the flights that had been assigned to WASPs. The Women Airforce Service Pilots were disbanded 20 December 1944.
After the U.S. Air Force became a separate military service in 1947, Jackie Cochran and Nancy Harkness Love were given commissions as lieutenant colonels, United States Air Force Reserve.
Flight Captain Jackie Cochran, R.A.F. Air Transport Auxiliary. (Indian Palms Historical Society)
17–19 June 1941: Jacqueline (“Jackie”) Cochran was the first woman to fly a bomber across the Atlantic Ocean when she ferried a Lockheed Hudson from Canada to Scotland. The airplane was a twin-engine Lockheed Model 414 Hudson Mk.V (LR), Royal Air Force identification AM790 (Lockheed serial number 414-2872).
Recognizing that the War would require all available pilots, the United Kingdom’s Lord Beaverbrook and the United States Army Air Forces Chief of Staff, Major General Henry Harley (“Hap”) Arnold, felt the need to demonstrate that civilian women could serve as pilots of military aircraft in non-combat situations. Jackie Cochran, a famous record-setting pilot, was selected for the assignment.
Cochran had previously served as a Flight Captain ¹ with the Royal Air Force Air Transport Auxiliary. After a period of six months, she had returned to the United States at the request of General Arnold, where she served on his staff.
For this ferry flight, Captain Edgar Grafton Carlisle, Jr.,² was assigned as her navigator. The Hudson also carried a radio operator, today only remembered as Coates. Royal Canadian Air Force authorities felt that Miss Cochran was not physically strong enough to operate the Hudson’s hand brakes. The arrangement between her and the R.C.A.F. was that she would be allowed to fly the bomber as First Officer, but that Captain Carlisle would make all takeoffs and landings.³
Cochran, Carlisle and Coates departed Montréal, Québec, at 1920 G.M.T., 17 June, en route to Gander, Newfoundland. They flew 931 statute miles (1498 kilometers) in 5 hours, 4 minutes before landing at 0024 G.M.T., 18 June, and remained there overnight.
Page from Form 68 Watch Log, dated 18 June 1941. (Courtesy of Diana Trafford, Flights of History.)
The following evening, 18 June, at 1857 G.M.T., they took off to fly across the North Atlantic Ocean, a distance of 2,122 statute miles (3,415 kilometers).
Great Circle Route from Montreal to Gander, and on to Prestwick. (Great Circle Mapper)
In her autobiography, Cochran wrote:
Flying the ocean at night didn’t mean much. We were above an overcast and hardly saw water. But just before daylight, we were heard or spotted by radar and suddenly through the darkness tracer bullets came up in front and around us. There was sudden consternation on board. Carlisle rushed up to me and the radio operator came running out of his compartment with his Very pistol. He opened a hatch and by firing a certain colored bullet gave the signal of the day but this really served no purpose because the light could not have been seen from the surface of the water anyway and the firing at us was probably coming from a German submarine or one of our own friendly ships. I thought maybe the pilots in the mass meeting in Montreal were right after all and the Germans were going to make a test case of me. Anyway, the tracer bullets stopped almost as soon as they started and no noticeable damage was done to the plane. After daylight, a hole opened up in the overcast and we saw a ship burning at sea, but could do nothing about it except to make a report by radio because we had no fuel to spare to enable us to go down and cruise around. Then we caught sight of the coast of Ireland in the distance and it kept creeping up on us and growing larger and larger and more friendly. From off the coast of Ireland to Prestwick, Scotland, was a tortuous air route. The route went one way and then another—without any real pattern—and the route was changed daily to make it difficult for enemy planes or submarines to intercept. At the end of twelve hours, we came to a stop on the runway. Carlisle, under the regulation, made the landing.
—The Stars at Noon, by Jacqueline Cochran, Little, Brown and Company, Boston and Toronto, 1954. Chapter VI, Pages 102–103
They arrived at Prestwick, Scotland, at 0605 G.M.T., 19 June, after a flight of 11 hours, 8 minutes.
Page from Form 68 Watch Log, dated 19 June 1941. (Courtesy of Diana Trafford, Flights of History.)
Jackie Cochran would go on to form the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs).
The image below shows the Hudson ferried by Jackie Cochran in service later in the War. It is painted in the Coastal Command camouflage scheme.
The Lockheed Hudson was a twin engine light bomber developed by Lockheed from its Model 14 Super Electra civil transport. Both types were designed by the legendary Clarence L. (“Kelly”) Johnson. The B-14L prototype made its first flight 10 December 1938 from the Union Air Terminal at Burbank, California. It was flown by two Royal Air Force officers, Squadron Leader James Addams and Squadron Leader Randle. The prototype (also identified as Model 214-40-01) was purchased by Great Britain and assigned the R.A.F. identification N7205.
The Hudson flown by Cochran, AM790, was an improved Model 414, Hudson Mk.V. This was identical to the earlier Mk.III, with the substitution of Pratt & Whitney R-1830-S3C4-G Twin Wasp engines. The bomber was flown by a single pilot, with a navigator/bombardier, radio operator and gunner.
The Hudson Mk.V was 44 feet 3⅞ inches (13.513 meters) long with a wingspan of 65 feet, 6 inches (19.964 meters) and height of 11 feet, 10 inches (3.607 meters). It had a maximum gross weight of 20,000 pounds (9,072 kilograms).
The Mk.V was equipped with two air-cooled, supercharged 1,829.4-cubic-inch-displacement (29.978 liter) Pratt & Whitney Twin Wasp S3C4-G (R-1830-61) two-row fourteen-cylinder radial engines with a compression ratio of 6.7:1. These had a normal power rating of 1,100 horsepower at 2,550 r.p.m. to 6,200 feet (1,890 meters) and 1,000 horsepower at 2,550 r.p.m at 12,500 feet (3,810 meters). The takeoff/military power rating was 1,200 horsepower at 2,700 r.p.m. to 4,900 feet (1,494 meters) and 1,050 horsepower at 13,100 feet (3,993 meters). The engines turned three-bladed propellers though a 16:9 gear reduction. They were 5 feet, 3.48 inches (1.612 meters) long, 4 feet, 0.19 inches (1.224 meters) in diameter, and weighed 1,495 pounds (678 kilograms).
The Hudson had a cruise speed of 220 miles per hour (354 kilometers per hour, and maximum speed of 246 miles per hour (396 kilometers per hour) at 6,500 feet (1,981 meters). Its service ceiling was 25,000 feet (7,620 meters).
The Hudson was designed to carry four 250 pound (113 kologram) or six 100 pound (45 kilogram) bombs. It was armed with two forward-firing .303 Browning Machine Gun Mk.II mounted in the nose and operated by the pilot, with another two .303s on flexible mounts at the waist position, and 2 additional Mk.IIs in a power-operated Bolton Paul dorsal turret. Eight rockets could be carried under the wings.
409 Hudson Mark Vs were built. 207 of these were a long range variant, the Hudson Mk.V(LR).
During World War II, Hudson Mk.V(LR) AM790 served with No. 500 and No. 608 Squadrons, both units of the Coastal Command, Royal Air Force.
¹ An ATA Flight Captain was an equivalent rank to a Royal Air Force Squadron Leader.
² Edgar Grafton Carlisle, Jr., was born 17 October 1908, at Baltimore, Maryland, and was a citizen of the United States. He was the first of six children of Edgar Grafton Carlisle and Elizabeth Henderson Spafford Carlisle. A former resident of Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, Carlisle was a 1928 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania.
He entered the United States Army as an aviation cadet at Kelly Field, Bexar, Texas, earning his reserve officer’s commission and aviator’s wings in 1930. He served as a lieutenant in the 28th Division Aviation Unit, Pennsylvania National Guard and commanded the 103rd Photo Section.
Carlisle married the former Miss Lillian Matarose Baker at Narberth, Pennslyvania, 9 January 1933. They would have two children.
Carlisle entered the Royal Air Force Ferry Command in September 1940. To do so, he was required to resign his reserve commission in the United States Army. In the King’s New Year’s Honors List, 1 January 1942, Captain Edgar Grafton Carlisle, R.A.F.F.C., was invested an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (Honorary). The insignia of this honor was presented at Government House, 3 February 1942, by Lord Athlone, Governor General of the Dominion of Canada.
Following the War, Carlisle worked in the banking industry. He also taught Aerial Navigation at the University of Vermont.
Edgar Grafton Carlisle, Jr., O.B.E., died at Burlington, Vermont, 27 March 1994.
³ Jackie wrote: “The moment the plane became airborne Carlisle, having complied with instructions as to take-off, turned the single set of controls over to me.” —The Stars at Noon, by Jacqueline Cochran, Little, Brown and Company, Boston and Toronto, 1954 Chapter VI at Page 102
In a civil ceremony held at Kingman, Arizona, record-setting aviator Jacqueline (“Jackie”) Cochran marries industrialist Floyd Bostwick Odlum.
Cochran would found and direct the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs). Odlum would later own Convair, the successor to the Consolidated-Vultee Aircraft Corporation. Convair’s Atlas ICBM would take its name from Odlum’s Atlas Corporation.
Graduating class of WASP Pilots pass in review at Avenger Field, Sweetwater, Texas. (U.S. Air Force)
24 April 1943: The first class of the Women Airforce Service Pilots, Class 43-1, graduated from the four-month flight training program and earned their wings as U.S. Army pilots. The class entered with 38 trainees and 24 graduated. Each woman had a civil pilot’s license and at least 200 hours of flight time. Over 25,000 women applied and approximately 1,900 were accepted. By the end of the war, 1,074 had graduated.
Jacqueline (“Jackie”) Cochran, founder of the WASPs, seated in the cockpit of a Curtiss-Wright P-40 Warhawk. (U.S. Air Force)
The Women Airforce Service Pilots were civilian employees of the United States Department of War. Although the WASPs ¹ received the same primary, basic and advanced flight training as their U.S. Army Air Force male counterparts, they were not military personnel. Following graduation from their flight training, some pilots went on to specialized training in heavy bombers or fighters.
WASP pilots Frances Green, Margaret Kirchner, Ann Waldner and Blanche Osborne at the four-engine school at Lockbourne Army Airfield, Ohio, with a Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber. (U.S. Air Force)Test pilots were not always men. These four women, members of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs), were assigned as engineering test pilots, testing new aircraft and modifications. The airplane behind them is a North American Aviation B-25 Mitchell twin-engine medium bomber. From left to right, Dorothy Dodd Eppstein, Hellen Skjersaa Hansen, Doris Burmeister Nathan and Elizabeth V. Chadwick Dressler. (U.S. Air Force)
The WASPs were not combat pilots. They tested newly-manufactured aircraft for acceptance by the military, delivered these airplanes from factories to Air Corps bases around the country, ferried aircraft across oceans, and flew transport missions.
All of these women provided a great service to their country during a time of war, but even more so to the generations of women who would follow their path.
Major Eileen M. Collins with F-4E-31-MC Phantom II, 66-0289, at the Air Force Test Pilot School, Edwards Air Force Base, California, 1990. A pilot instructor on the T-38 Talon and C-141 Starlifter, Eileen Collins graduated from Class 89B at Edwards. Accepted as an astronaut for NASA, she piloted the space shuttle Discovery on mission STS-63, Atlantis, STS 84, and commanded Columbia STS-93 and Discovery, STS-114.(U.S. Air Force)U.S. Air Force F-15C Eagle fighter Interceptor pilots of the 3rd Fighter Wing, Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, left to right, Major Andrea Misener, 19th FS; Captain Jammie Jamiesen, 12th FS; Major Carey Jones, 19th FS; Captain Samantha Weeks, 12th FS. (U.S. Air Force)Captain Suzanna Darcy-Henneman, Lead Test Pilot for the Boeing 777 and Chief Pilot, Boeing Training and Flight Services. (Boeing)Brigadier General Jeannie Leavitt at Nellis AFB. (United States Air Force 160715-F-YM181-001)
¹ The WASPs were a separate organization from the WAFS, the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron.
