Honoring Women of
Flight at the San Diego Air & Space Museum Located in the historic Ford Building in beautiful Balboa Park, the San Diego Air & Space Museum’s one-of-akind exhibit, “American Women of Flight,” honors the contributions to the world of aviation by women throughout history. Notable aviatrixes such as Amelia Earhart, Bessie Coleman, Jacqueline Cochran, Fran Bera, Sally Ride, and many others, are featured in the exhibit, which is conveniently located in the Museum’s Golden Age of Flight Gallery. Significant women of flight and the events of their day are featured in the exhibit, from the earliest aviators to the most recent, covering more than 100 years of the colorful history and women aviators and astronauts. The nearly 100-year-old organization of women pilots known as the 99s gets special treatment in the American Women of Flight exhibit — not just for the who’s-who list of its members, but also for the enormous good they have done promoting women of flight throughout the life of the association. Inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame at the San Diego Air & Space Museum in 2014, the 99s organization was created in 1929. They were noted for their achievements in aviation, inspiration to women pilots, and dedication to education and preservation of women’s aviation history. Although there are other female pilot organizations, virtually all notable women in America’s aviation history have been members. Their existence dates to the Women’s Air Derby, also known as the “Powder Puff Derby,” held in conjunction with the Cleveland Air Races. Forty women qualified to take part, and 20, including Amelia Earhart, raced in the Derby.
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WWW.HomelandMagazine.com / MARCH 2020
Eighty-six of the then 117 licensed American female pilots joined together to create the organization, quickly growing to 99 members, hence their name. Amelia Earhart was elected their first President. They were essential during the World War II effort, breaking into many aspects of the aviation world, serving as test pilots, mechanics, flight controllers and instructors. They transported aircraft for the Army Air Corps, and ferried fighters, bombers, transports, cargo, and utility aircraft to England. Jacqueline Cochran, wartime president of the 99s, organized the first class of the Women’s Air Force Service Pilot (WASPs). By the 1960s, military services finally began giving women the opportunity to become pilots. By the early 1980s, the Air Force was accepting forty women annually for pilot training, with the Navy accepting about fifteen. And, in 1986, in a first in American aviation history, an all-female flight crew was in the cockpit of a commercial jetliner. A decade later, on February 3, 1995, the first American woman pilot astronaut, Eileen Collins, flew on the Space Shuttle Discovery. Today, the 99s focus on education and charity and sponsor educational programs for teachers and aviation related field trips for schools. Women are well represented in the International Air & Space Hall of Fame at the San Diego Air & Space Museum, one of the most prestigious halls of its kind in the world. Amelia Earhart was inducted in the hall’s earliest days in 1967. Since then, she has been joined by a pantheon of the world’s most recognizable women aviators and astronauts, including Olive Beech, Fran Bera, Jacqueline Cochran, Bessie Coleman, Joan Sullivan Garrett, Martha King, Christa McAuliffe, The 99s, Ellen Ochoa, Dr. Sally Ride, Katherine Stinson, Louise Thaden, Patty Wagstaff, Women Air Force Service Pilots (WASPs) and Peggy Whitson.
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