Women Aviators

by Karen Bush Gibson

  Hell’s Angels was the top-grossing movie that year and eighth-highest-grossing film during the 1930s. Hell’s Angels didn’t use the green screens or computerized special effects that we see in movies today. Back then, filmmakers used actual pilots, like 29-year-old Pancho Barnes. As Hollywood’s first stunt pilot, Pancho worked in many Hollywood films, several of which were with Howard Hughes, who shared her love of flying.

  From her work in films, Pancho founded one of the first unions in Hollywood, the Associated Motion Picture Pilots (AMPP). She wanted to make certain that stunt pilots received decent wages. She was the only female member of the AMPP for a long time.

  Florence Leontine Lowe was born in 1901. The most important person during her childhood was her grandfather, Thaddeus Lowe, who created surveillance balloons and was in charge of the Union Army’s Aeronautic Corps during the Civil War. Thaddeus Lowe shared his love of flight with his granddaughter and took her to her first air show when she was ten years old.

  Noticing the mesmerized look in Florence’s eyes, Thaddeus said, “When you grow up, everyone will be flying airplanes.”

  “Me too?”

  “You too. You will be a great pilot someday.”

  Florence’s parents, particularly her mother, spent much of their time attending society functions and parties. Florence didn’t care about looking pretty or behaving as her mother wanted her to. Florence thought she was plain looking, and she preferred hunting or riding horses to dressing up. But her mischievous streak often got her into trouble. Trying to curb their daughter’s wild tendencies, her parents sent her to Catholic school. Not only did Florence escape from the school, but she also escaped the country, riding to Tijuana, Mexico, on a horse.

  The Lowes arranged for their daughter to marry an Episcopal minister, the Reverend Rankin Barnes. The marriage was unhappy from the start, even after the birth of a son. Once again, Florence left her life behind; this time she escaped on a banana boat. However, this boat was filled with guns and Mexican revolutionaries instead of bananas. The ship’s helmsman was an American, Roger Chute.

  Taking their leave from the revolutionaries, Roger and Florence traveled through Mexico for several months. Roger jokingly called her Pancho because she was disguised as a man. She liked the name and decided to keep it.

  When she returned to the United States and her husband seven months later, Pancho was ready for a new adventure. Her parents had died, leaving her with an inheritance to spend. She asked Ben Caitlin, a veteran World War I pilot, to teach her to fly. He didn’t want to teach a woman to fly, so he tried to scare her off by taking her on a demonstration flight filled with loops, twirls, and dives. Little did he know that the flight would make Pancho want to learn to fly even more.

  Pancho was fearless in the air—sometimes even reckless. And she was just as mischievous in the air as she was on the ground. During her first solo, she repeatedly buzzed by her husband’s church to disrupt his sermon.

  Signed by Orville Wright, Pancho’s pilot’s license was number 3522; she soon bought a Travel Air Speedwing. Her friend, Bobbi Trout, told her about a women-only air race from Santa Monica to Cleveland. There was a lot of publicity about it because air officials and newspapers were saying that women shouldn’t be allowed to race, that it was too dangerous. Pancho Barnes only had one thing to say to that: “Where do I sign up?”

  Leading up to the Women’s Air Derby, Pancho did what she did best, which was to shock people or make them laugh. She might be found with a cigar between her teeth or saying a vulgar word of two. When a newspaper reporter asked her how she balanced flying with her other duties, Pancho replied that flying was the perfect antidote to housework. She flew planes; she didn’t do housework.

  She took off with 19 other pilots, including Amelia Earhart. While she was trying to land in Pecos, Texas, a car dashed across the runway, causing her to crash. She was unable to complete the Powder Puff Derby, but she had a good time at the race, which was all that really mattered to her. Her motto was, “When you have a choice, choose happy.”

  Pancho bought a low-wing monoplane, a Travel Air Model R “Mystery Ship,” for $13,000. It was only the second one ever made. With it, she began a barnstorming troupe called the Mystery Circus of the Air. On August 1, 1930, she took off in her Mystery Ship from the Van Nuys, California, airport. She pushed the speed to 196 miles per hour in sustained flight. She beat Earhart’s speed record and assumed the title of the world’s fastest woman. After that, she celebrated by flying to Mexico City, again a first for an American female pilot. She sold her circus in 1935.

  In addition to her stunt pilot work, Pancho also worked for Lockheed as its first female test pilot. She performed maximum load tests on the Lockheed Vega, flying over the Mojave Desert.

  Although Pancho liked to shock people, those who knew her realized that she had a big heart. She formed the Women’s Air Reserve (WAR) to assist people in need of medical attention in times of disasters. The women who worked with WAR were trained in first aid and military maneuvers. Bobbi Trout helped Pancho, and they publicized WAR by flying around the Statue of Liberty with wingtip touching wingtip. Pancho and five of the women also promoted WAR in 1934 by flying cross-country.

  Pancho’s free spending, coupled with the Great Depression, drained her finances. With the last of her funds, she bought an 80-acre ranch in the Mojave Desert, north of Los Angeles. She started an airport and flight school but was forced to close the flight school when World War II began. Close to Edwards Air Force Base, her ranch became a popular place for air force personnel, aviators, and celebrities.

  In 1947, General Jimmy Doolittle visited Pancho and went riding on a horse named Happy. After the ride, Doolittle told Pancho he had a “Happy bottom.” Pancho loved it and renamed her ranch the Happy Bottom Riding Club. In addition to its own airport and horses for riding, the ranch had a bar, restaurant, hotel, swimming pool, dance hall, and rodeo.

  Air force pilot Chuck Yeager was a regular at the Happy Bottom Riding Club. He explained that Pancho’s popularity with the people from Edwards Air Force Base was because “she loved pilots and shared our code.”

  Breaking Mach 1

  How many people heard the sonic boom coming from Edwards Air Force Base on October 14, 1947, is hard to say, but if Pancho heard it, she would have known that someone had just flown faster than the speed of sound. And she would have known that it was her buddy, fellow test pilot Chuck Yeager.

  After World War II, Yeager continued serving in the new air force as a flight instructor and test pilot. He flew the rocket-powered Bell X-1 fighter plane and named the plane Glamorous Glennis, after his wife. On October 14, Yeager passed Mach 1, breaking the sound barrier. He soon arrived at the Happy Bottom Riding Club to claim the free steak dinner Pancho had promised him if he could do it. The celebration lasted until the early morning hours.

  Edwards Air Force Base needed to expand, but the only direction was through the Happy Bottom Riding Club. Pancho fought the air force to keep her land. When a fire broke out on Pancho’s place in November 1953, she suspected it was arson but couldn’t prove it. She soon gave up the ranch.

  Pancho eventually made her peace with Edwards Air Force Base before she died in 1975. And the base remembers her each year by celebrating Pancho Barnes Day.

  LEARN MORE

  “Florence L. ‘Pancho Barnes’ Lowe” on the California State Military Museum website, http://www.militarymuseum.org/Barnes.html

  The Happy Bottom Riding Club: The Life and Times of Pancho Barnes by Lauren Kessler (Random House, 2000)

  Pancho Barnes Official Site, www.panchobarnes.com

  Pancho: The Biography of Florence Lowe Barnes by Barbara Hunter Schultz (Little Buttes, 1996)

  Powder Puff Derby of 1929: The True Story of the First Women’s Cross-Country Air Race by Gene Nora Jessen (Sourcebooks, 2002)

  LYNN RIPPELMEYER AND BEVERLY BURNS

  Airline Pilot Captains

  ALTHOUGH WOMEN PILOTS HAVE proven thei
r abilities in the skies in both peacetime and war, it took longer to convince commercial airlines that women could also pilot passenger aircraft. In 1934, Helen Richey became the first woman pilot hired by a regularly scheduled airline, but it would be almost forty years before the next woman piloted an airliner.

  In the United States, the Department of Commerce regulated flying until the Federal Aviation Administration was formed in the 1950s. Until the 1970s, women were barred from both military and commercial flying. As soon as the ban was lifted, women began entering the commercial aviation industry. However, even though the government had given the OK, it still took time to convince commercial airlines that women could do the job.

  Pilots must earn a commercial pilot’s license to fly for airlines; that requires ground school and 200 to 300 hours of flight training. Commercial airline pilots must have earned at least a certificate for single-engine and multiengine aircraft, plus instrument ratings. Commercial airline pilots can find themselves working up to 14 to 16 hours straight and at all different hours. To captain an airliner, a pilot must have an Airline Transport Pilot certificate (ATP), which requires receiving a commercial pilot certificate, passing a written exam and an FAA flight exam, and racking up 1,500 pilot-in-command hours. The captain of a commercial airline is not only responsible for the airplane but also for the crew, passengers, and cargo.

  Helen Richey

  Helen Richey was an accomplished pilot; she had competed in all types of races from the time she earned her pilot’s license in 1930. With a goal of flying mail and passengers, Helen earned her commercial pilot’s license eight months after getting her private pilot’s license. She applied for a copilot position with Central Airlines in December 1934. The president of the airline wanted the publicity that would come with hiring a competitive flyer who had just won the first Women’s National Air Meet. Helen flew a 12-passenger “tri-motor” plane between Washington and Detroit, with stops in Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Male-led unions didn’t think she belonged in the cockpit of an airline, and the Department of Commerce restricted her to three flights per month. Helen resigned in August 1935. She went on to fly a variety of planes for the British Air Transport Auxiliary before flying for the WASPs.

  Patrice Clarke-Washington

  According to Patrice Clarke-Washington, safety always comes first in her role as an airline captain. Many days are routine, but as soon as something unexpected happens, such as bad weather, she sometimes has to make difficult decisions. She is the first African American female captain of a major airline and a member of the Organization of Black Airline Pilots, a group of approximately 600 African American airline pilots. Of that number, perhaps ten or eleven are female.

  Patrice was raised by her mother in a can-do atmosphere. When Patrice decided she wanted a career in travel, she decided she would be a pilot. After graduating from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, she went to work in the airline industry. Her first job was as a pilot for a small charter airline, Trans Island Airways. She moved to United Parcel Service as a flight engineer on the DC-8. She moved up to first office and then captain, a position she assumed in November 1984.

  Emily Warner became the next female airline pilot almost 40 years after Helen Richey. She started working with Frontier Airlines on January 29, 1973. American Airlines hired its first female pilot, Bonnie Tiburzi, a couple of months later. Later that year, Delta hired the company’s first female pilot as well. In 1982, the first female jet captains in the United States were working for Piedmont Airlines. Two years later, Great Britain’s first all-female airline crew flew passengers from England to Holland.

  In 1984, women pilots rejoiced when two aviators demonstrated the capabilities of female pilots. Captain Lynn Rippelmeyer and Captain Beverly Burns both worked for People Express Airlines. On July 19, the two took off from New Jersey’s Newark International Airport as the captains of Boeing 747s. At the time, the 747 was the ultimate airliner, often called a jumbo jet.

  Lynn and Beverly were the first women to captain 747s. They flew in opposite directions for their historical flights. Beverly became the first woman to pilot a 747 cross-country to Los Angeles. Lynn did something similar to what Amelia Earhart had done fifty years earlier. She took the 747 across the Atlantic Ocean.

  Lynn Rippelmeyer, from Illinois, began her aviation career as a flight attendant in 1972. At one point, she wasn’t allowed to make announcements during flights. The airline believed that hearing a woman’s voice during the flight would be upsetting for passengers.

  Lynn began taking flying lessons and loved it. In fact, flying was addictive for her; when she wasn’t doing it, she wanted to be. Within five years, she was part of the first all-female crew for a commercial airline. When Lynn landed her 747 with 470 passengers at Gatwick Airport in London, she became the first woman to fly a 747 commercial airliner across the Atlantic Ocean.

  When the airline People Express became part of Texas Air, Lynn went along and became its second pilot. Later, the company became part of Continental Airlines. While she was with Continental, Lynn heard about a program called Medical Bridges. She saw the good things this medical charity was doing for others and began volunteering to fly medical supplies to clinics and hospitals in Honduras.

  Like Lynn, Beverly also began her aviation career as a flight attendant. When talking about career choices with her high school counselor, Beverly mentioned that she would like a job in travel. The counselor recommended that Beverly be a stewardess, not a pilot.

  She worked as a stewardess for American Airlines from 1971 to 1978. After overhearing a male first officer explain that women weren’t smart enough to become airline pilot captains, Beverly promptly signed up for flying lessons. Her instructor, Robert Burns, had been taught by a former WASP who had made him promise to help a capable woman pilot break into the airline industry. When he met Beverly, it seemed like fate. The two later married.

  Beverly’s first job after receiving her license was as a charter pilot. She began as a first officer for People Express in 1981. Four years later, Beverly received the Amelia Earhart Award for her success as a commercial airline captain.

  After 27 years of flying for airlines, Beverly retired with more than 25,000 flight hours. In addition to the 747, she has captained DC-9s, DC-10s, and Boeing aircraft 727s, 737s, 757s, 767s, and a Boeing 777. She was the first woman with Continental to captain a Boeing 777, and her first flight was from Houston, Texas, to London.

  LEARN MORE

  Great Women in Aviation #5: Captain Emily Warner—First Female Pilot Hired by a U.S. Scheduled Airline by Henry M. Holden (Black Hawk Publishing, 2012)

  International Society of Women Airline Pilots website, www.iswap.org

  Takeoff!: The Story of America’s First Woman Pilot for a Major Airline by Bonnie Tiburzi (CreateSpace, 2010)

  WALLY FUNK

  Air Safety Investigator

  WITH MORE THAN 18,500 hours in the air, Wally Funk has had almost every aviation-related job—flight instructor, transport pilot, commercial pilot, investigator, and more. CFI, AI, MEL, glider, IGI, GS, and air safety investigator—these are all certifications she has earned since she began flying at age 20.

  Wally was born wanting to fly. She took her first test flight at age five when she jumped off her father’s barn wearing a Superman cape. A bale of hay caught her. Growing up in Taos, New Mexico, in the 1940s and 1950s allowed her to spend lots of time outdoors trying out her athletic skills, whether she was running, skiing, or shooting. She received the Distinguished Rifleman’s Award at age 14. At the same time, she represented the southwestern United States as a top female skier in slalom and downhill races in United States competitions. When she was indoors, she built model airplanes.

  Parental support came from her mother. Wally’s mother recalled wanting to fly after taking a ride with a barnstormer when she was 16, but her father had told her she never would fly because she was female. Now that she had a daughter, Wally’s mother didn’t want her daughter�
�s gender to limit what she could do. When Wally wasn’t quite 21, she needed parental permission to participate in astronaut training. Wally’s mother not only gave her permission, but she also drove her daughter to the week of tests in Albuquerque.

  Several years earlier, after receiving her pilot’s license at age 16, Wally was off to Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri. She enrolled in its aviation program and was first in her class of 24 fliers.

  What’s in a Name?

  People often wonder if Wally’s name is real. Yes and no. She was born Mary Wallace Funk. Like some people, she went by her middle name, but when the time came to put her name on her Christmas stocking, Wallace wouldn’t fit. Not a problem—she just shortened it to Wally, and that’s what it’s been ever since. The Australian band Spiderbait liked her name so much that they used it in the name of one of their albums, The Flight of Wally Funk. Wally Funk is an unforgettable name for an unforgettable woman.

  The Federal Aviation Administration

  As more private airplanes and commercial airlines filled the skies, aviation became increasingly dangerous. The government assigned first the Department of Commerce and then the Civil Aeronautics Authority (CAA) the responsibility of enforcing air-traffic rules, certifying aircraft, and licensing pilots in the United States.