Cornelia Fort. Flying Instructor and member of WAFS. Photo taken in 1942. Her story in the comments.
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View Reddit by Robert-Jay – View Source
Cornelia Fort. Flying Instructor and member of WAFS. Photo taken in 1942. Her story in the comments.
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View Reddit by Robert-Jay – View Source
Photo shows Cornelia Fort wearing pilot’s coveralls, flying helmet, and goggles perched on top of her head. She’s standing next to and leaning against the wing of a PT-19 training airplane in 1942.
Fort was a young Nashville debutante who became a pilot in 1940 at age 21, flying 2000 hours in the weeks after she obtained her license, and becoming Tennessee’s only female flying instructor at the time.
She was giving a lesson near Honolulu, Hawaii, on the morning of 7 December 1941 when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. She landed safely, though under fire.
In September 1942, she was among 28 women who were the first members of the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS), a new and controversial venture to free up men for combat duty by having women ferry planes from airbase to airbase.
Cornelia Fort died on 21 March 1943 in a mid-air collision near Abilene, Texas while ferrying a plane from Long Beach, California to Dallas, Texas. She was the first woman pilot killed in the line of duty.
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Sourced from Vintage America Uncovered on Facebook.
There’s a small GA municipal field in NE Nashville named after her.
Outstanding! Thanks for sharing…