WWII's unsung heroes: Remembering the dazzling 'lady bird' pilots that tested B-17 bombers

Via David

 

'The Women With Silver Wings' is a new book that retells the long storied history of the glamorous and fearless female pilots that played a critical role on the home front during WWII
The Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) were a group of highly skilled airmen organized in September 1942 as a way to release more male pilots for combat roles abroad
They were stationed at 126 bases across the US and worked as test pilots, flight instructors and ferry pilots that transported planes off the assembly line and to Army bases around the country and abroad
More than 25,000 women applied but only 1,102 were accepted into the program; they had to be aged 21- 35 and have 500 hours flying time - many were working as stunt pilots prior to joining  the WASPs
The WASPs were led by Jackie Cochran, a close friend of Amelia Earhart and Eleanor Roosevelt; Cochran was the first female to break the sound barrier as well as the first woman to fly a bomber across the Atlantic
Cochran was married to millionaire tycoon Floyd Odlum and she was known for arriving at air bases in her Rolls-Royce and fur coat, other pilots came from illustrious families like the Woolworths and du Ponts
A total of 38 women died, one of which whose plane mysteriously went missing off the coast of California

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