Girls and Aircraft - Volume II

Elvis · Sep 17, 2019

...a few excerpts from Your girl pilot, Christin Sanders

Snautzer01 · Sep 17, 2019

Photograph of Jackie Cochran Talking to a Group of WFTD Cadets | eBay

Dana Bell · Sep 17, 2019

US National Archives - 80-GK-143309

Lorna Peterson, parachute rigger 3/c, Castana, Iowa, returns from a flight at the Naval Air Station, Ottumwa, Iowa, in a plane piloted by Lieutenant (jg) K. W. Sharer, Montezuma, Iowa, a flight instructor there.

XBe02Drvr · Sep 17, 2019

Dana Bell said:
Lorna Peterson, parachute rigger 3/c, Castana, Iowa, returns from a flight at the Naval Air Station, Ottumwa, Iowa

Must be a hot day in Ottumwa. Short sleeves in a Stearman back seat? Looks posed too me. She doesn't display the wind blown exhilaration that a Stearman ride inevitably generates. Hell, she could pass a personnel inspection right there. No Stearman passenger I've ever seen could do that.
Cheers,
Wes

gumbyk · Sep 17, 2019

XBe02Drvr said:
Must be a hot day in Ottumwa. Short sleeves in a Stearman back seat? Looks posed too me. She doesn't display the wind blown exhilaration that a Stearman ride inevitably generates. Hell, she could pass a personnel inspection right there. No Stearman passenger I've ever seen could do that.
Cheers,
Wes

Defintiely staged (like most promo photos)
Instructors headset not plugged in, and her parachute strap's loose.

Elvis · Sep 17, 2019

Radar was from Ottumwa...

Aaron Brooks Wolters · Sep 17, 2019

Leyla Mammadbeyova (1909-1989) was the first female aviator in her native country of Azerbaijan. She performed her first flight in 1931.
She studied aviation in Baku and Moscow, and in 1933 became the second female parachutist in the Soviet Union. She then led glider and parachute courses, training hundreds of combat pilots and thousands of paratroopers.

Snautzer01 · Sep 18, 2019

WASP pilot Florence Shutsy War Photo 4x6 inch M | eBay

Snautzer01 · Sep 18, 2019

B-24 THF34213 Ford Motor Co. Willow Run Bomber War Photo 4x6 inch M | eBay

XBe02Drvr · Sep 18, 2019

Snautzer01 said:
WASP pilot Florence Shutsy War Photo 4x6 inch M | eBay

View attachment 552984

I think that's the same woman who was assistant manager of the Navy Exchange store at NAS Boca Chica. She looks like a 30 year younger version of the former WASP I remember.
She was rather a feisty sort, and bitter about the treatment women got in the aviation world, but was willing to talk and reminisce with someone who had a genuine interest in aviation history. She even showed some of her photos of her WASP friends and some of the aircraft she flew, but none of her. She said private photography was a security concern and had to be done on the sly, hence no "incriminating" selfies.
She flew a variety of singles (T6, SBD, Helldiver, P40, P47, and P51), and flew copilot in B25, C45, and C47 as well, but found herself unemployable after her WASP days, not only in aviation, but in any capacity at all. "It's as though being a reformed pilot was worse than being a reformed prostitute, I couldn't get a job anywhere, and had to marry an enlisted sailor just to keep from starving to death. I wasn't even welcome in church!" The devil incarnate.
Cheers,
Wes