AirSpace Revisited: Fly Girl

AirSpace Revisited: Fly Girl

The Women's Airforce Service Pilots were a huge part of civilian aviation during WWII. Ahead of our new limited series, Home Front, we've brought back our season four episode. Episodes of Home Front start August 14th. 

On this episode of AirSpace, we’re spotlighting the heroic service and enduring legacy of the Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASP. More than 1,000 of these fearless women flew as civilians for the Army Air Forces during World War II. These skilled pilots performed jobs on the home front—ferrying planes, towing targets, transporting personnel—flying almost every type of military aircraft. Yet despite filling a crucial wartime role, these women weren’t recognized as veterans for more than 30 years. And their campaign to be permitted burial in Arlington National Cemetery lasted even longer.  

In This Episode: 

• Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP)
• Civilian aviation 

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Thanks to our guests in this episode: 

• Guest host and historian Dr. Katherine Sharp Landdeck, author of The Women with Silver Wings
• Nell “Mickey” Bright, a former WASP
• Terry London Rinehart, daughter of WASP Barbara Erikson London
• Patricia L. "Trish" Beckman, retired Navy pilot

Transcript

AirSpace is created by the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum with generous support from Lockheed Martin.