During our August 2005 meeting, member Betty Brown graced us with her presence and shared the enchanting story about her life as a WASP. Above Betty revisits her first WASP training aircraft, the 220HP Stearman.

Former WASP and Katahdin Wings Member - Betty Brown

Betty was a young woman in during the time of World War II. This was a period of uncertainty of the outcome of this conflict, so it was on everybody’s mind, every day. In 1943, when Betty was 19, she worked for the General Motors Corp. in Detroit and lived under the traffic pattern of a nearby grass strip. That often made her wonder about her world: “What would it look like” from up there. Fortunately, a friend from work who had an airplane who took her for a ride. From there, she was hooked and started lessons in a 65 HP Taylorcraft. Even then, she felt no discrimination in the male-dominated advocation, she felt welcomed.

Betty, along with most Americans at that time, wanted to contribute somehow to the War effort. She heard about Jackie Cochran training women pilots for the Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASP, program. She actively pursued involvement with the program. Beginning in April of 1943 she wrote letters constantly, and finally in December of 1943, she got a letter of acceptance from Jackie Cochran. At the time, applicants needed 35 hours of previous training, and had to be 21. Initially, the program was accepting only applicants with twin-engine time and 500-1000 hours, but this was revised due to lack qualified applicants. Her enthusiasm and determination to be accepted into this program was so deep that she felt compelled to change the birth date on her birth certificate, since she was only 19. After much searching through the GMC offices, she found a typewriter with a letter style that matched the birth certificate, and made a slight change to the document. When she was finally accepted, though, the age requirement had been lowered to 20 - which she really was by then. There were also height and weight requirements, which found many young women hanging from trees in order to “stretch” and grow taller. They would add fishing weights to the hems of clothing to weigh more.

Betty’s letter of acceptance informed her that she would report to Avenger Field in Sweetwater, TX in February 1944, to begin training. She took a flight from Detroit to Dallas in an American Airlines DC-3 with 21 total passengers, where a stewardess served them pea soup for lunch. Upon arrival in Dallas, she boarded a train for the final leg to Sweetwater. She knew then that she was “walking into another life.”

Her Squadron 447 included 98 women from all kinds of backgrounds, from clerks to doctors, models and even a Rockette. They lived in barracks that consisted of eight rooms, with six women per room. Each had a small private area consisting of a cot, a locker, a study table and a gas furnace. Of course, everyone had too much stuff. They were issued men’s size 40 coveralls that were much too large for most of them, which they called “zoot suits,” along with size 40 men’s flight jackets.

The squadron was divided into two flights of approximately 50 girls each, so when one group was working on flight training, the other was in ground school. They also had to learn to march, which they finally mastered. They would march and sing on their way to classes. Ground school classes consisted of Physics, Math, Theory of Aerodynamics, and Engines. Flight training was performed in a 220 HP Stearman. Since there was a constant cross wind and often gusts up 50mph, lots of right rudder was required. Betty loved her instructor, because he enjoyed aerobatics and flying upside down as much as she did. Although, she recounts one incident when another instructor came screaming in for a landing, jumped from the plane shouting “I’ve lost my student!” Apparently during spin training, his student fell out of the plane, but she parachuted safely to the ground.

After about 70 hours of training in the Stearman came the Army check ride. By then, 17 women in Flight #1 had washed out, and 11 washed out of Flight #2. Prior to receiving their wings, the trainees were “civil service” workers and received $150 per month; after receiving their wings, they made $250 per month. All worked six days a week. In 1978 the WASP program was finally recognized as military and members of the program began receiving veteran benefits.

Advanced training in the 650HP AT-6 began after passing ground school and a check ride. Betty didn’t feel the AT-6 training was any more difficult than the Stearman, since that was a tailwheel with narrow gear. Ground school now included Morse Code, Advanced Navigation with “Radio Range”, and working in a “Link Trainer” (a very early simulator). Flight training consisted of an hour and a half of Link training, an hour and a half in the AT-6, and an hour and a half under the hood. The BT-13 was used for instrument approaches and hood work. There was a pressure chamber test in San Antonio, were the trainees experienced the effects of 28,000 feet of altitude with no oxygen.

Betty recounts a story of a long cross country that included stops in Atlanta GA, Meriden, MS and Paris TX. Paris was an Army field, where surprised army men exclaimed, as the planes landed and the women pilots climbed out of their planes and removed their helmets, “You mean these are all women!”

After 30 weeks of training, consisting of 210 hours of flight, and 393 hours of ground school, Betty graduated, one of the 59 out of 98 who made it through. She felt that she was “never the same.” The WASP program was disbanded in December 1944, but she enjoyed three months of duty, flying the AT-6 towing a target banner for gunnery practice, with a 75 foot towline. For utmost safety, cameras were used, not actual guns. Overall, WASPs flew 60 millions miles in 78 different types of aircraft, from the smallest to the largest, including the B-29 Superfortress. Women learning to fly the B-29s and B26s shamed the men into learning to fly these aircraft as well, since they were reluctant. When first conceived in 1941, the WASP program demonstrated that properly trained women could handle the faster, higher powered military aircraft during a time of national emergency, and become top-notch pilots.

After Betty's presentation, Katahdin Wings members and guests also visited the Stearman on display at Central Maine Airport's Anything That Flys Fly-In. From left: Ronald Brown, Betty Brown, Cathy Steele, Mary Build, Jeanne Kannegieser with mascot Molly, Lori Plourd.

Pat Theberge, New England Section Governor, Katahdin Wings members Claire Holmblad and Lisa Reece with pilot Dana Smith

Pat Theberge, New England Section Governor, and Katahdin Wings members Lisa Reece, Jeanne Kannegieser, KoKo Harris, and Claire Holmblad helped celebrate the 90th anniversary of pioneer pilot Ruth Law’s flight over the town of Bath, Maine.

It was a day of firsts.

Ruth Law Day in Bath, Maine on August 16 was organized to commemorate the first flight over the city in 1913. It was also a day to observe the 100th anniversary of America’s first powered flight. And, it was the first time Dana Smith of Limerick, Maine builder and pilot of the Wright model EX crashed his 1911 replica aircraft.

Smith would fly this imposing apparatus of wires, wood and wings from Bath’s industrial park (the former Wing Farm) just yards from the site where Ruth Law took off on her historic flight. From the parking lot he planned to land the early bird just 150 yards away in a small plowed field. It was to be the highlight of the day.

The speakers had spoken, and the plaque unveiled. It was time for some airborne entertainment. The thunderous roar of the engine echoed throughout the modern confines. The crowd of 50 took a collective auditory breath. This was going to be an exciting event to witness. The only replica of its kind was taking off, and it would soon be airborne. The biplane roared across the parking lot, and directly off the edge into the tall grass. The engine went silent, the aircraft abruptly stopped. And, then very slowly the tail pointed skyward. The aircraft was on its nose; the tail protruding from the underbrush like a strangely deformed plant. Smith walked out from under the bent aircraft. He is uninjured, and the stunned spectators exhale.

Honoring the pioneer spirit

The clear, sunny day began with the dedication ceremony and the unveiling of a memorial monument honoring the pioneer spirit of Law, and her historic flight over Bath. A lasting tribute to Law is written in stone; a brass plaque affixed to a large granite boulder stands at the entrance to the Coastal Economic Development building at Bath’s industrial park off Congress Street.

Speakers included pilot John James chairman of the Bath City Council, state and city representatives, aviation representatives, and event coordinators. State Senator Arthur Mayo, presented a state of Maine proclamation declaring August 16 Ruth Law Day. Aviation representatives included Heather Hemdal FAA regional manager, and Pat Theberge, New England Section Governor of the Ninety-Nines. Theberge’s impressive speech honored those early pioneer women aviators. She traced the history of women from the formation of the Ninety-Nines to the struggles, and strides women have made, and continue to make in aviation. Members of the Maine Aviation Historical Society, and the Maine Aeronautics Association (MAA) were also in attendance at this exciting commemoration of another proud first for the City of Bath. MMA and KW were co-sponsors of the event, and instrumental in getting the project off the ground.

Despite the unfortunate event earlier in the day, the show continued. There were booths and exhibits at Bath’s waterfront park, a model airplane contest, and other exciting merchant activities. A Replica Wright Flyer was also on display at the Winter Street Church. At 2:30 p.m. a parade of flight appeared over the Kennebec River to the delight of about 40 spectators. A variety of aircraft paraded across the sky and made several passes; including a 1946 Piper Cub, a 1941 Defender, a 1946 Luscombe, and a newly built RV8.

The 2003 flight over the city didn’t quite draw the crowd as Law did back in 1913 as told here in the local newspaper. “Miss Ruth Law Held 10,000 spellbound, IN THE AIR 23 MINUTES.” These were the headlines in the August 11, 1913 edition of the Bath Daily Times.

“Champion aviator of the world"

She was billed as the “champion aviator of the world," and was the featured event at Bath’s 1913 Midsummer Carnival. In securing her participation at the carnival the newspaper reported… ‘that people will come from points for miles around to see this novel exhibition of flying given by a woman’ Law flew about 1,000 feet for 23 minutes above the city while thousands of amazed spectators watched this woman pilot maneuver her light aircraft with precision. According to the August 16 edition of the Bath Daily Times, after her “sensational flight,” she landed just a few feet from where she took off and was soon surrounded by a congratulatory crowd.

“It was one of the most enjoyable flights of the many I have made,” Law said after her flight.

It was after all, “the first flight in this city and it naturally attracted more than a little attention,” the newspaper reported.

Law was the fifth licensed woman pilot in the United States when she received her wings in 1912. She bought her first aircraft from Orville Wright, and later purchased a Curtiss Pusher. She went to work as a commercial pilot and immediately began her record breaking flying career. She was the first woman to do an aerobatic loop, and was the first woman to fly at night. In 1915 at a fair in Birmingham, Alabama she looped her airplane an astounding 16 times. By 1916 she had set numerous world records including reaching an attitude of 11,200 feet in her Curtiss Pusher bi-plane. That same year she flew from Chicago to New York setting distance and speed records for both men and women. She flew 590 miles in 8 hours and 55 minutes. In 1919 she bested her own altitude record flying to a height of 14,700 feet.

She was denied permission to fly combat at the outbreak of WWI. She was however, authorized to wear a military uniform. She conducted flights for the American Red Cross and Liberty Bond drives. She posed for recruiting posters, and became a military flight instructor. She was the official mail carrier to the Philippine Islands in 1919.

After the war she established the Ruth Law Flying Circus. She was one of the most popular barnstormers of the era. She earned up to 9,000 dollars a week for her flying exploits. After a performer fell to her death during one of the shows routine acts (transporting herself from a moving car to a rope ladder dangling from a airplane flying low overhead), Law decided to retire. Law had been planning a transatlantic flight, and was hoping to be the first to fly from Newfoundland to Ireland. With the prodding of her husband and long-time manager, Ruth Bancroft Law retired from flying in 1922.

Law never flew again, but continued to receive awards and accolades for her early flying endeavors. She died in 1970 in San Francisco, California at the age of 83. This pioneer pilot was an inspiration for future women pilots like; Amelia Earhart, Louise Thaden, Bobbi Trout, and Sally Ride. She would no longer be flying when Lindbergh crossed the Atlantic or Earhart attempted her around the world flight, but her spirit and tenacity would propel future generations of women pilots to new heights.

Ruth Law Day also commemorated the 100th anniversary of America’s first manned flight. On December 17, 1903 at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina two brothers from Ohio achieved what many thought wasthe impossible dream—the first powered, manned, heavier-than-air flight. With Orville at the helm the Wright Flyer lifted into the air and remained there for 12 seconds covering a distance of 120 feet. The age of aviation begins and 100 years later Bath, Maine celebrated.