Women Pilots continued . . .

 

This project records the feats and achievements of women pilots from their early daredevil days to their current successes throughout the twentieth century in commercial and military service as well as in space.

 

Dress and Scott traveled to Alabama, New York, North Carolina, California, Connecticut, Texas, and Washington, D.C., as well as Long Island locations, to interview women pilots for the 90-minute work. There are hours of tape from over 220 pilots interviewed – some of these were original charter members of the Ninety-Nines, who even attended the group's first meeting at Curtiss Field in Valley Stream, N.Y., in 1929.

 

Many of the women were record holders of endurance races or altitudes, while others were pioneers. Elinor Smith and Bobbi Trout were the first females to re-fuel an airplane in mid-air. Bonnie Tiburzi was the first woman pilot hired in 1973 by a major commercial airline company to fly a jet. Gene Nora Jessen, one of the Mercury 13, who had quit her job to become an astronaut, learned that the U.S. Space Program decided against sending women into space in 1961, even though she and 12 others had passed the astronaut testing procedures.

 

Check out the trailer at http://www.makebelievetv.com/index.php/documentary/wings-of-their-own