{"id":22404,"date":"2022-06-13T13:04:31","date_gmt":"2022-06-13T13:04:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/saj.pachecostudios.com?p=22404"},"modified":"2022-06-13T13:05:28","modified_gmt":"2022-06-13T13:05:28","slug":"defining-june-events-in-womens-aviation-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/aviation-education\/defining-june-events-in-womens-aviation-history\/%20","title":{"rendered":"Defining June Events in Women\u2019s Aviation History"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Photo above – In 1930, songs were written about Britain’s Amy Johnson and her airplane named Jason. (WikiCommons)<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Penny Rafferty Hamilton, Ph.D.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
In 1911, Harriet Quimby became the first woman in the United States licensed to fly. (WikiCommons) <\/em> <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Over 113 years ago, the power of\nmutual support for women in the nascent field of ballooning and aeroplanes\nresulted in the founding of La Stella, the Aero\nClub Feminim<\/em>. On June 16, 1909, this new women in aviation organization\nhosted a large exhibition on the grounds of the Aero Club de France<\/em> at St. Cloud in the western suburbs of Paris. A\nhighlight of this inaugural event was ascension of six balloons, all with women\npassengers, obviously, a first. Another first was a balloon piloted by Marie Surcouf\nwith an all-women crew. Earlier, Surcouf reportedly became the first woman to\npilot a balloon. Another important leader is La Stella was Alicia Bl\u00e9riot, wife\nof Louis Bl\u00e9riot, the famous airplane designer. Louis later helped American\nHarriet Quimby become the first woman to fly across the English Channel on June\n2, 1912, loaning Harriet his personal aeroplane for this life-changing flight. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another June aviation milestone was on June 9, 1929. Britain\u2019s legendary flyer, Amy Johnson (See photo at top), flew her first solo flight after only 15 hours and 45 minutes of dual instruction. Amy was awarded her British Air Ministry pilot flying certificate on July 6. Less than a year later, audacious Amy began her epic solo flight from England to Australia in May, 1930. In 19 days, after flying 11,000 miles alone in her Gipsy Moth, Amy Johnson became the first woman in the world to fly solo from Great Britain to Australia. She landed in Darwin, Australia on May 24, 1930. The celebrations of her flight lasted for weeks. It was an inspirational flight followed around the world. Amy once said, \u201cI think it is a pity to lose the romantic side of flying and simply accept it as a common means of transport, although that end is what we have all ostensibly been striving to attain.\u201d Amy named her airplane, Jason. Indeed her arduous flight became a lot like the Greek mythological Jason\u2019s odyssey for the magical Golden Fleece. Amy ran into sand storms, monsoons, damage and repair to Jason\u2019s wing, all reported with detail by the British press. Amy Johnson became world famous. She won 10,000 pounds offered by the British newspaper, Daily Mail<\/em>, to the first woman to successfully fly this daring mission. In 1930, Amy won the Harmon International Aviatrix Trophy. Amy became a Super Star. Women wanted their hair in an \u201cAmy Johnson wave.\u201d At least ten popular songs were written about her. The most famous was \u201cAmy, Wonderful Amy.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
On June 18, 1983, Sally Ride became America\u2019s first woman in space. \u201cRide, Sally Ride!\u201d (NASA photograph.)  <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Only\ntwelve years later, an historic first for women took place in Colorado. In June\n1942, 80 years ago, Mary Chance VanScyoc, already a pilot, headed to the Denver\nAirway Traffic Control Center to start her new job as an Air Traffic\nController. Mary became the first female civilian air traffic controller in the\nUnited States, according to Andrew Pital, historian with the Air Traffic\nControllers Association. Mary explained, \u201cAir traffic control was in its\ninfancy when I started in June 1942. The Air Traffic Control Center in Denver,\nColorado, had just opened in March with 12 controllers, a chief, a senior\ncontroller (who was the trainer) and a secretary. Traffic was controlled only\non the airways, which we called the \u2018Highways of the Skies.\u2019” Wartime\nopened many aviation opportunities for women. Fortunately, Mary was able to\ncontinue in ATC after the war. From Mary\u2019s book, A Lifetime of Chances, <\/em>she wrote. \u201c<\/em>By chance, I saw a newspaper ad during World War II\nannouncing women were welcome to apply for air traffic control. The only\nrequirements were a college degree and a pilot\u2019s license.\u201d Mary had both. And,\nthe rest is herstory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Ensign Mary Crawford in June, 1981, earns her Naval Flight Officer (NFO) wings. Mary\u2019s parents pin her NFO wings on. She is the first female NFO in naval history. (Official U.S. Navy photograph, now in the collections of the National Archives.) <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Fast forward to 1981, 41 years ago, when Ensign Mary A. Crawford became the first female Naval Flight Officer (NFO) in the United States Navy. After her June graduation, she joined Antarctic Development Squadron 6 (VXE-6). <\/strong>Amazing that just two years later, on June 18, 1983, NASA Astronaut Sally Ride’s place in history was assured when she rocketed into space on Challenger’s STS-7 mission with four male crewmates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Women Soaring Pilots Association was founded in 1986. Women encouraging other women to excel in this growing aviation sport. (Courtesy Women Soaring Pilots Association) <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Well, we started this June look at events which shaped women\u2019s\naviation and aerospace history with the formation of La Stella. On June 11,\n1986, the Women Soaring Pilots Association was formed in Tucson, AZ. The idea\nof mutual support and promotion for women in aviation a full 77 years later is still\nimportant. It is still identified as an important element in women\u2019s success\ntoday. When one woman has success, all women share it that success. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo above – In 1930, songs were written about Britain’s Amy Johnson and her airplane named Jason. (WikiCommons) By Penny Rafferty Hamilton, Ph.D. Over 113 years ago, the power of mutual support for women in the nascent field of ballooning and aeroplanes resulted in the founding of La Stella, the Aero Club Feminim. On June […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":22405,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aviation-education"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/AmyJohnsonandJson-edit.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22404"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22404\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22411,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22404\/revisions\/22411"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}