{"id":5897,"date":"2017-09-23T09:31:36","date_gmt":"2017-09-23T14:31:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/?p=5897"},"modified":"2019-09-27T12:59:06","modified_gmt":"2019-09-27T17:59:06","slug":"girls-in-aviation-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lib.uiowa.edu\/eng\/girls-in-aviation-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Girls in Aviation Day!"},"content":{"rendered":"

September 23rd<\/sup> is Girls In Aviation Day!<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Flying is so much more than just a quick way to traverse space.<\/div>\n
It’s freedom and color and form and style. I am at home in the air.”<\/div>\n
Amelia Earhart, Feb. 7, 1934, Christian Science Monitor.<\/strong><\/em> <\/strong><\/div>\n

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In honor of Girls in Aviation Day, let’s take a brief look back at the women aviation pioneers!<\/p>\n

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Amelia Earhart. Photo Credit: The Official Amelia Earhart website<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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?<\/p>\n

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 36th<\/sup> 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)!<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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Photo Credit: Vicki Van Meter<\/a> website<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

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These women, and so many others, laid the groundwork for women to pursue their love of flying in a variety of aviation careers. <\/strong><\/p>\n