Fred Erisman - In Their Own Words: Forgotten Women Pilots of Early Aviation

James R. Hansen, Series Editor

Purdue Studies in Aeronautics and Astronautics builds on Purdues leadership in aeronautic and astronautic engineering, as well as the historic accomplishments of many of its luminary alums. Works in the series will explore cutting-edge topics in aeronautics and astronautics enterprises, tell unique stories from the history of flight and space travel, and contemplate the future of human space exploration and colonization.

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British Imperial Air Power: The Royal Air Forces and the Defense of Australia and New Zealand Between the World Wars
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Through Astronaut Eyes: Photographing Early Human Spaceflight
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A Reluctant Icon: Letters to Neil Armstrong
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John Houbolt: The Unsung Hero of the Apollo Moon Landings
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Dear Neil Armstrong: Letters to the First Man from All Mankind
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Piercing the Horizon: The Story of Visionary NASA Chief Tom Paine
Sunny Tsiao

Calculated Risk: The Supersonic Life and Times of Gus Grissom
George Leopold

Spacewalker: My Journey in Space and Faith as NASAs Record-Setting Frequent Flyer
Jerry L. Ross with John Norberg

Forgotten Women Pilots of Early Aviation

Fred Erisman

Purdue University Press West Lafayette, Indiana

Copyright 2021 by Purdue University. All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America.

Cataloging-in-Publication data is on file at the Library of Congress.

Print ISBN: 978-1-55753-978-6

Epub ISBN: 978-1-55753-979-3

Epdf ISBN: 978-1-55753-980-9

Cover photo courtesy of National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution (NASM 72-10099)

For
Patt and Wendy
Keeper of the flame; Inheritor of the torch

The women who defined the Golden Age of Aviation in the United States: Amelia Earhart, Ruth Nichols, and Louise Thaden (lr) in 1933. COURTESY OF SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM ( NASM 89-21979)

Once in the air a machine will go as well with a woman at the steering wheel, as with a man. Machinery knows no sex.

RUTH LAW , 1916

A FRINGE BENEFIT OF an academic career is the privilege of working with and alongside a host of intelligent, creative, independently minded individuals. A singular number of these are women. In my own case, they include (among numerous others) Carrie Hintz, Karen Nelson Hoyle, Deidre Johnson, and Anne Scott MacLeod in the field of childrens literature; Melody Graulich, Nancy Tystad Koupal, Ann Romines, and Ann Ronald in that of Western literature; Dorothy Cochrane, Valerie Neal, and Margaret Weitekamp from the National Air and Space Museum; and colleagues from Texas Christian University, Judy Alter, Theresa Stroud Gaul, Linda K. Hughes, Karen Steele, and Judy Suther. Two others belong in this company, as well: my wife, Patricia L. Erisman, and our daughter, Wendy Erisman. I have learned a great deal from all of these women, with perhaps the greatest lesson being the realization that intelligence, wit, creativity, and competence are not created byor limited toany specific combination of X and Y chromosomes.

I have had other moments of good fortune as well.