This Saturday, September 26^th is Girls In Aviation Day!

This is the 6^th year of the Girls in Aviation Day (GIAD) and will deliver a free, year-round experience for girls ages 8-17 around the world with the launch of a new Aviation for Girls (AFG) App, sponsored by the U.S. Air Force (check our resources, below, for more information about the app).

Since WAI’s first annual international Girls in Aviation Day in 2015, the annual WAI event has grown every year since its first gathering of 32 events and 3,200 participants. In 2019, GIAD met more than 20,000 attendees participating in 119 events in 18 countries.

In honor of Girls in Aviation Day, let’s take a brief look back at the women aviation pioneers!

When we think of women in aviation, we often think of Amelia Earhart. But have you heard of Harriet Quimby, Lores Bonney, Fay Gillis Wells?

Amelia Earheart took her first plane ride in 1920 and began flying lessons in 1921 – buying her first plane that same year. Harriet Quimby was a newspaper reporter/writer and was assigned to cover an airshow in 1910, and she was hooked. On May 11, 1911 – one day before her 36^th birthday, she entered flight school. In 1931 Lores Bonney set a new Australian record for a one-day flight by a woman. In 1933 she was the first woman to fly from Australia to England. In 1928 Fay Gillis jumped from a disabled plane in flight, making her the first woman to join the Caterpillar Club – a group composed of pilots who have made life-saving jumps with silk parachutes. Betty Skelton-Frankman won the International Feminine Aerobatic championship in 1948, 1949, and 1950. She was best known for the trick “inverted ribbon cut,” (she flew upside down, 10 feet off the ground, through a ribbon tied between two poles)!

In 1994 Patrice Clarke-Washington was the only African American woman flying with the rank of captain for a major airline. Jean Ross Howard-Phelan is the 13th woman in the world to receive a helicopter’s pilot license. She learned to fly in 1954.  Florence Parlett actively flew until she was 83 years old and has operated the Annapolis Flying Service at Lee Airport in Edgewater, Maryland.

In 1993 at age 11, Victoria Van Meter flew across the ocean and then did it again the following year. A flight instructor was required to be with her on both flights because she didn’t meet the age limit to fly alone.

These women, and so many others, laid the groundwork for women to pursue their love of flying in a variety of aviation careers. 

• Lori Love: crop duster in California.
• Madge Minton: joined the WASPs (World War II Women Airforce Service Pilots) and flew fighter planes across the country to various military bases.
• Susan Still: 3rd woman trained in combat aircraft for attack missions.
• Suzanne Asbury-Oliver: skywriter for Pepsi in 1980.
• Evie Washington: flight instructor for the Civil Air Patrol.
• Mary Edna Fraser: uses aerial photography to inspire her silk batik artwork. She doesn’t have a pilot’s license, but will take off, land, and maneuver the aircraft into position.
• Ellen Paneok: Native American Eskimo pilot – delivering supplies and mail to remote Alaskan villages.
• Mayte Greco: Cuban American pilot and founding member of Brothers to the Rescue (Hermanos al Rescate), an organization of pilots who fly search and rescue operations over the ocean between Florid and Cuba searching for Cuban exiles in rafts.

These women paved the way for the participation of women in NASA and space exploration. In the beginning they were “human computers,” then aeronautical engineers, and then astronauts.

• Katherine Johnson, Mary Jackson, Dorothy Vaughan, Kathryn Peddrew, Sue Wilder, Eunice Smith and Barbara Holley: African American women mathematicians, worked at NASA during the Civil Rights era. “Human computers.”
• Shannon Lucid: one of the original core of women astronauts; in 1997 she held the record for the longest time in space for an American (188 days on board the Russian space station Mir).
• Mary Ellen Weber: mission specialist on board space shuttle Discovery in June of 1995.
• Vickie Gutierrez: Aerospace Engineering. Began working for NASA in 2002.
• Rosalind Cylar: Attorney and advisor in the Office of chief counsel at NASA’s Marshall space Flight Center.
• Courtney Ritz: Is blind and works at the Goddard Space Flight Center since 2002. She is the Web Accessibility Coordinator.

In September 2017, astronaut Peggy Whiton broke NASA’s record for the longest time spent in space  – 665 days! She also holds other records – the record for the oldest woman to go to space (57 years old); women’s record for the longest amount of time doing spacewalks – 53 hours & 22 minutes; and the first woman commander of the space station. On her latest mission she traveled 122.2 million miles and went orbited Earth 4,623 times. She was born in Mt. Ayr, Iowa.

All of these women – from the pioneering aviators to the pioneering women in aeronautics – have helped clear the way for this generation, and future generations, to fulfill their dreams of flying!

Interested in finding a chapter of the Women in Aviation International check their website!

Girls in Aviation Day is sponsored by Women in Aviation International.  Women in Aviation International (WAI) hold events are being held world-wide. Check their website to find a chapter near you. 

Resources:

Michele Wehrwein Albion, editor. 2015. The quotable Amelia Earhart. Albuquerque : University of New Mexico. Engineering Library TL540.E3 A3 2015

Kerr, Leslie. 2016. Harriet Qumby : flying fair lady. Atglen, PA : Schiffer Publishing. Engineering Library TL540.Q496 K47 2016

Alexander, Kristen. 2016. Taking flight : Lores Bonney’s extraordinary flying career. Canberra, ACT : NLA Publishing. Engineering Library TL540.B635 A44 2016

Russo, Carolyn. 1997. Women and flight : portraits of contemporary women pilots. Washington, D.C. : National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Boston : Bulfinch Press. Engineering Library FOLIO TL539 .R87 1997

Tallman, Jill W. November 18, 2011.  Mary Edna Fraser.  AOPA. Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. Date accessed 2018

Vicki Van Meter. 2012. Vicki Van Meter.

Record-breaking NASA Astronaut Peggy Whitson Sets New Record for Time in Space.  NASA.

Keating, Fiona. Sept. 2017. Astronaut Peggy Whitson breaks NASA’s record for longest time spent in space. Independent : News, Science.

Dorothy Vaughan. The Human Computer Project : Inspiring STEM stories from History . Date Accessed: Sept. 5, 2017 (no longer accessible as of 6/18/18)

Roberts, Jason, editor. Aug. 3, 2017.  Peggy A. Whitson (PH.D.) NASA Astronaut.  National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Other Resources:

For information about the free Girls in Aviation app, go to their website.

Winters, Kathleen C. 2010. Amelia Earhart : the turbulent life of an American icon. New York : Palgrave Macmillan. Engineering Library TL540.E3 W57 2010

Holt, Nathalia. 2016. Rise of the rocket girls : the women who propelled us, from missiles to the moon to Mars. New York : Little, Brown, and Company. Engineering Library TL862.J48 H65 2016

Eschner, Kat. June 16, 2017. Meet the Rogue Women Astronauts of the 1960s Who Never Flew : But they passed the same tests the male astronauts did – and, yes, in high heels. SMARTNEWS : Keeping you current.   Smithsonian Institution.

Riley, Ricky. June 29, 2016. This Black NASA Mathematician Was the Reason Many Astronauts Came Home – Their Life Depended on Her Calculations.  Atlanta Black Star.

Amelia Earhart. The Family of Amelia Earhart. Date accessed: August 29, 2017. National Geographic.

NASA Women of Stem. August 3, 2017. National Aeronautics and Space Administration.  NASA.

Gallentine, Jay. 2016. Infinity beckoned : adventuring through the inner solar system, 1969-1989. Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press. Engineering Library TL795.3 .G355 2016

For information about the free app, go to their website.

Happy Star Wars Day – May the 4th Be With You! And the first Friday in May is National Space Day! So, tomorrow, May 4^th, 2018, is truly a space-lover’s day! Besides a movie marathon, what better way to spend your day than by learning about what it actually takes to get to space!

If you are like me you know – vaguely (read almost nil) – about how much engineering, technology, planning, creating, and training go into getting a rocket to the lift-off stage. Think of the engineering and mechanics of building a space rocket which can safely be launched into space, orbiting the earth or the moon and coming back to earth – or traveling across the galaxy to planets like Mars. How did we get to the point where we actually can put human beings into a machine and blast them into space?

Between 1948 to 1960, animals, biologically speaking, were the space program. Animals were the test subjects who were used to understand the effects of acceleration and deceleration, vibration, noise, extremes in temperature, weightlessness, and all the other hazards which might be limitations to sending human beings into space.  Briefly, dogs and monkeys were used in those first biological tests. Capsules were built around them and extensive training and preparation went into getting them ready for their flights. Engineering those first capsules was complicated – the engineers and scientists had to work together to design a capsule which would hold an anesthetized monkey, enough oxygen to last about 2 hours, chemicals to absorb the carbon dioxide from the breathing monkey, with enough room for the instruments needed to measure breathing and heart rate. The monkeys also needed to be chosen and prepared. Two Macaca mulatta rhesus monkeys were chosen because of high intelligence and physiological similarities to humans. The Project was dubbed “Project Albert,” although no one is quite sure why. The first capsule wasn’t pretty – it needed extra welding and caulking to be sure it was airtight, but was satisfactory! An anecdote about one of the 2 monkeys: One of the monkeys managed to escape through a broken window. Three weeks later the air force base received a letter from the Tampa City Police Station, stating they were holding a captive monkey. The wayward monkey snuck into a woman’s immaculate kitchen which surprised both her and the monkey. The monkey threw teacups and saucers at her and she chased him around her kitchen. She had to be compensated for her broken crockery and the monkey was taken into custody!

The Russian space program worked with dogs. The dogs had to be small (between 13 & 16 pounds), and between the ages of 18 months to 6 years. They were separated by personality (i.e. restless vs lethargic), then were put through a training program to see how they would respond to situations such as small spaces, loud noises, & isolation. The dogs went through rigorous training, but also lived a rather pampered life; large wooden cages, daily walks, a well-rounded diet, and were closely monitored by a veterinarian. Here’s an anecdote about the dogs in the Russian space program: One of the dogs scheduled to fly was named Bobik. Bobik ran off the day before his scheduled flight. They quickly found a stray dog and named him ZIB – which stands for “substitute for missing dog Bobik.”

For more fascinating stories about animals and space flight check out Animals in Space: From Research Rockets to the Space Shuttle. 

All the flights the animals took were the precursor to human beings rocketing into space. It has been said one of the biggest problem of space flight is the human machine. A person has a fluctuating metabolism, come in different sizes, needs oxygen & food, etc. . . . Planning for humans and space flight or life on a space station includes preparing for a myriad of possibilities. Ever thought about bathing in space? Gemini VII was launched on Dec. 4, 1965 as a medical “dress-rehearsal” for the Apollo program, before which there was a two-week simulation. Minimal meant “no bathing or  sponging of the body, no shaving, no hair and nail grooming . . . no changing of clothes and bed  linen, the use of substandard oral hygiene, and minimal use of wipes.” (Packing for Mars, pg 194).  One team of subjects lived and slept in these conditions for 4 weeks. Socks and underwear deteriorated and had to be replaced. When the subjects removed their helmets (and the body odors escaped) the stench was literally nauseating. The test subjects were then ushered, one by one, into a shower and the scientists would collect the runoff for scientific analysis. (yes, really).

Now think about all the research, testing, and trials that have gone into how to handle bodily waste. . . and the training the astronauts must go through to use the space toilet. Without gravity the astronaut is actually not sitting on the toilet seat . . . And, oh yeah, there is drinking urine that has been run through a charcoal & osmosis bag… and motion sickness – are you throwing up? or down?

And food . . .The requirements for “Beef Sandwiches, Dehydrated (Bite-sized)” is six pages long . . . (the sandwich may not break when handled, and the coating must not chip or flake)….And, oh yes, the astronauts have to be willing and able to eat it…

I talked a bit about training the animals and testing to see how they would do in a confined space. Humans also have to be rigorously tested – living and working as a team in a confined space, weightlessness, and on and on. Japan has a unique and effective way of choosing teams of astronauts. For a detailed look read, “He’s Smart But His Birds Are Sloppy.” chapter 1 in Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void. (I don’t think you’ll be sorry you read it – it’s quite fascinating!)

However you choose to celebrate Star Wars Day and International Space Day – think about all that goes into – and all that went before – launching a rocket, with human beings, into outer space!

May the 4th Be With You!

Resources:

Roach, Mary. 2010. Packing for Mars : the curious science of life in the void. New York : W.W. Norton Engineering Lilbrary QH327 .R63 2010

Burgess, Colin. 2007.  Animals in space : from research rockets to the space shuttle. New York ; London : Springer. Engineering Library QH327 .B87 2007