More than a century ago, the open sky formed a dome over the ocean, the beach and the land, the billowing clouds, the temperate weather and the sense of freedom in the breeze invited all to join the birds floating and soaring above.

Both men and women answered the siren song.

They followed their instincts and pursued their desires to be untethered from the terra firma under their feet in Long Beach, California.

For men, flying was their destiny and something new to conquer.

For women, flying represented the chance to claim a measure of independence and to experience the fulfillment of an ambitious spirit often constrained by society's conventional customs.

These intrepid women were attracted to Long Beach like metal to a magnet here in this coastal Southern California city.

The promise of acquiring wings and arcing across the sky was an opportunity too tempting to resist.

The characteristics shared by all these women included a fearless disposition, a strong quest for adventure and enthusiastic appreciation of the enabling technology of aircraft.

And finally, a belief that gravity was not strong enough to hold them back from achieving their dreams.

Ultimately, these courageous women were living their lives with their hearts above the clouds.

There were two main reasons why Long Beach became significant in Southern California and West Coast aviation in the first two decades of the 20th century.

one reason involved the pioneering exhibition of air meets at nearby Dominguez The initial Dominguez Field gathering in 1910 comprised the first international aviation meet held on U.S. soil.

Similar meets previously had been presented in Europe.

The 1910 competition at Dominguez Field attracted world famous pilots, newspaper reporters and the publisher, William Randolph Hearst.

The air meet, being hosted so cl to Long Beach, ignited the passion of every young man in the area who had a hankering for the sky and the nagging, desperate longings of the secret Icarus residing within each one of them.

The second reason why Long Beach became popular with aviators from 1910 onward was the geography of the Long Beach coastline.

Long Beach was blessed with eight miles of perfectly flat, sandy, unobstructed shoreline.

Early pilots found this long, crescent shaped stretch of sand to be a fashionable place to land their aircraft.

Once on the ground, these pilots walked to the nearby throngs of tourists and visitors who were thrilled at viewing beach landings in this fast growing resort city.

Long Beach pilots Frank Champion, Earl Daugherty and others inspir by the Dominguez field events garnered attention for their speed records, daredevil maneuvers and aerobatic stunts.

Indeed, for the period between 1910 and the late 1920s, these daring young men in their flying machines grabbed the headlines and soaked up the attention of a fascinated public.

But things would change in the late twenties.

By 1930, women pilots became the most famous celebrities of Long Beach aviation.

Accordingly, these women received the lion's share of national recognition and local adoration.

In 1920, the most prominent Long Beach aviator was Earl Daugherty.

He had a hand in every aspect of Long Beach Aviation.

Earl Daugherty developed and pr a national winter air tournament in Long Beach during the 1920 Christmas holiday.

one of the paid attendees at the air tournament was a relatively shy 23 year old woman named Amelia Earhart.

She had never flown before attending Daugherty's air show.

After the show, Amelia could not think about anything else.

A few days later, she took her first flight with a young pilot and friend of Earl Daugherty named Frank Hawks .

Hawks later went on to become another Long Beach legend in aviation.

He set 214 speed records and starred in a 1937 movie serial titled The Mysterious Pilot.

Frank Hawks and Amelia Earhart developed a strong friendship and stayed in touch their entire lives.

for Amelia, that first flight with Frank sealed the deal.

At that point, she knew she would be a pilot.

one of the women Amelia had seen flying at the Long Beach winter air tournament was an aviatrix and airfield manager named Anita Snook, who was known as Neta.

Amelia thought her parents would feel more secure about her aviation aspirations if she were taught to fly by a competent woman pilot.

Ultimately, Amelia & Anita agree to a flight training plan.

Anita was the pilot who taught Amelia how to fly.

Beginning on January third, 1921, Mary Anita Snook was born in 1896 in Mount Carroll, Illinois.

From the time she was a young girl, she had all the attributes of a tomboy.

She preferred mechanical pursuits to playing with dolls.

She often watched and helped her father with maintenance of the family's early automobiles.

When given a chance, she built wooden items in her grandfather's workshop at an early age.

Nita attended the county fair.

She found the Hot Air Balloon Act to be the most captivating show on display when Nita attended college at Iowa State in Ames, Iowa .

She drove a car around town.

This was unusual for single females.

In 1916, she continued learning about combustion engines and mechanical repair, taking courses in those subjects to supplement the required courses for women in home economics.

At the end of spring 1917, Neta decided she wanted to learn to fly.

A new flight school in Davenport, Iowa, had opened.

Neta was the only female in the school, but became known as the best naturally gifted flier in the group.

After Neta had accumulated 100 minutes in the air, the flight school was abandoned when the training aircraft crashed, killing the new school president and badly injuring the school's flight.

Instructor Anita Snook then had to complete her flight instruction elsewhere.

She entered the Curtiss Flying School in Newport News, Virginia, where she was the first and only female accepted and enrolled.

Also known as the Atlantic Coast Aeronautical Station, the Curtis School trained many famous military pilots leading up to World War one, including Eddie Rickenbacker and Billy Mitchell.

As before, Neta distinguished herself as a talented pilot.

She was not just driving the airplane, but operating the craft as an extension of herself, understanding the subtleties of balance, correcting off course directionality and maintaining altitude.

World War I caused the school to shut down because of concerns over aviation espionage near the Hampton Roads Army embarkation area to accommodate the students.

The flight school moved to Coconut Grove, Florida, where Neta continued her lessons until a second government order shut down the school altogether.

Eventually, Neta moved back in with her parents in Ames, Iowa.

She purchased a used wrecked Canadian airplane and began the process of repairing it with the help of friends in the back yard when the plane became airworthy in spring of 1920.

Neta began barnstorming across the Midwest.

Her first major job involve flying at Mount Carroll, Illinois, her childhood hometown.

She was paid $1,000 for three days of exhibition flying.

Elsewhere, she took passengers up in the air for $15 per flight across the Midwest.

She was a true pioneer in women's aviation.

Known as the first female aviator in Iowa and the first woman pilot in the nation to operate an aviation business.

When autumn of 1920 came and the weather turned cold, Neta Snook made the decision to move to Southern California so she could continue to support herself by flying year round .

Neta was 24 years old when she arrived in Los Angeles County.

She was directed to a man who was starting a fledgling air field and building a new aircraft.

The man's name was Burt Kinner.

He was a self trained master mechanic who had worked for Ford and was trying to become an airplane manufacturer.

The airfield Kenner developed was a piece of land on Long Beach Boulevard and Tweedy Road, a few miles north of Long Beach City.

Kenna's agreement with Neta Snook specified she would test fly his new airplanes and bring customers to his airfield.

In return, she could use the airfield for training her students, storing her airplane and generating whatever aviation business she wanted to conduct.

With these arrangements in place, Neta was the first woman in the country to run a commercial airfield.

When Amelia Earhart signed on as one of Neta students, the two also became the best of friends in the process.

Only a year separated them in age, and they had many things in common, including Midwestern backgrounds.

Amelia was born in Atchison, Kansas, and spent part of her childhood in Des Moines, Iowa, only about 34 miles from Ames .

Amelia saw her first airplane at the Iowa State Fair.

Neta and Amelia conversed about everything from aviation and engineering to poetry, photography and culture.

They attended concerts together and double dated on trips to downtown Los Angeles.

In L.A., they enjoyed vaudeville theater and dined in Chinatown and near Olvera Street.

Not only did Nina teach Amelia how to fly, she also taught her how to drive a car a Model T Ford.

Amelia actually flew before she knew how to drive.

Amelia also made a deal with airfield owner Burt Kinner to buy the first airplane he built.

It was the Kinner Airster, a light three cylinder aircraft.

Kinner later designed an innovative new airplane engine, which became one of the most popular by 1930.

He also developed a folding wing aircraft, which was similar in concept to the folding wing airplanes used on aircraft carriers in World War two.

During flight lessons, Neta Snook occasionally scolded Amelia for daydreaming and not keeping the nose of the aircraft level.

Although Amelia became the most famous and one of the most accomplished female fliers of her day, initially she impressed Neta as being preoccupied with preparation and perfection.

Amelia desired lots of practice and numerous hours of routine exercises before she developed the complete confidence and impressive skills she later exhibited in her many well-known exploits.

After more than a year of flying with Amelia and the two being the best of friends away from the airfield, Neta Snook announced her retirement from flying.

She had married and become pregnant.

Neta Snooks retirement from aviation in 1922 resulted from her choosing to abandon a risky occupation.

Before fate could deal her a losing hand, as it had done to so many others, she had known the last time Neta Snook saw Amelia Earhart in person was in 1924.

Neta and her husband, Bill Southern, moved with their new son to the Santa Clara Valley near Los Gatos.

They purchased a fruit farm, planted roots and then.

Began growing apricots and plums.

Neta never set foot in an airplane again until 1977, when she was in her eighties.

Then Neta was given a chance to fly a replica of Charles Lindbergh's spirit of St Louis aircraft.

four years later, in 1981, she was acknowledged as America's oldest living woman pilot.

During her later years, Neta lectured frequently about the early days of aviation and wrote an autobiography about her experiences.

Often, she was asked about her friendship with Amelia in the early 1920s and what it was like to teach her friend how to fly.

Many people asked Neta to speculate about what happened when Amelia Earhart disappeared over the Pacific Ocean in 1937.

Mary Anita Snook, Southern passed away in 1991 at the age of 95.

She was the owner of multiple firsts in women's aviation history.

In 1927, Charles Lindbergh flew solo across the Atlantic, nonstop from America to France.

This courageous, pioneering achievement inspired a generation of young people in America.

The tall, handsome Lindbergh, known as Lucky Lindy, seemed the ideal icon of all American Can-Do spirit.

one of many women who was motivated by Lindbergh's daring achievement and his overnight rise to fame was Gladys O'Donnell of Long Beach.

Gladys was determined and driven to drink from the same cup of adoration and glory, which Lucky Lindy was enjoying.

By 1930, Gladys O'Donnell fulfilled her dream.

She became the most celebrated and attention getting pilot in Long Beach at the time.

Gladys Livingston Berry was born in March of 1904.

Her father, George Berry, work difficult, dirty and demanding jobs in the oil fields of Southern California.

He was prone to frequent bouts of binge alcoholism and abusive behavior at home, always short on money.

The Berry family included seven children living a hardscrabble life, while a senior in high school, Gladys Barry, caught the eye of a man four years older than her in a chance meeting.

He was tall and dashing and came from a family of new oil wealth to Gladys Lloyd O'Donnell was the perfect Prince Charming, a fantasy character she dreamed would one day sweep her away from her tough family upbringing.

For his part, Lloyd O'Donnell also was smitten with Gladys at first glance.

Lloyd and Gladys were married a few months before she graduated from high school.

They soon had two children, and Gladys took on the traditional role of housewife, while Lloyd sold automobiles, tinkered with motorcycles and boats and decided his true calling was aviation.

Lloyd was a restless soul who briefly operated as a rum running bootlegger in Florida during the early days of prohibition in Southern California.

He was full of energy and always looking to gain attention from the local media.

He learned to fly in Long Beach and flew in the 1927 transcontinental air race from New York to Spokane, Washington.

Riding along with Lloyd, Gladys gained the distinction of being the first woman on board an aircraft during an American transcontinental air race.

In 1928, Lloyd secured financing from his father and opened the O'Donnell School of Aviation at the Long Beach Airport.

Shortly thereafter, Charles Lindbergh landed in Long Beach.

In the early morning of May 31st, 1928.

Lindbergh parked his airplane in front of the O'Donnell School hangar and went to a hotel downtown.

Lloyd filled up Lindbergh's gas tank and took passengers up for rides, charging for the novelty.

He didn't ask Lindy's permission.

Gladys O'Donnell was so enamored with Lindbergh's journey to fame through aviation heroism, she asked and then insisted that Lloyd teach her how to fly.

Lloyd agreed after realizing the publicity would be good for attracting women to the aviation school in addition to the usual complement of men.

Lloyd was impatient.

He had a hyper personality and was not a mild mannered flight instructor.

Gladys was frustrated with his lack of calm and his intimidating demeanor during flying lessons.

Lloyd decided to assign the remaining flight instruction to Bernard Lauscher.

Lauscher was a German army ace fighter pilot in World War one, who was later working for Lloyd.

Lauscher was patient and calm and committed to excellence in aviation.

Under his wing, Gladys O'Donnell was able to flourish in flight training.

Gladys learned quickly, remembered everything and put the knowledge into practice while learning how to feel the airplane, not just fly it.

She soloed after only ten hours in the air.

Gladys exhibited flawless skills during her licensing exam in 1929.

The examiner stated she performed as well as any seasoned pilot.

Ladies and gentlemen, I want to introduce some of the greatest players in the history of aviation.

The women players who are going to be contestants and the Great National Women's Air Derby in August of 1929, only a few months after acquiring her license.

Gladys O'Donnell entered the first national women's air derby.

Initially, 20 competitors plan to enter the race.

All the famous female fliers such as Amelia Earhart, Florence Poncho Barnes, Ruth Elder, Bobby Trout and Louise Thaden participated in the race from Santa Monica to Cleveland, Ohio.

You will take off according to the way you have registered.

One, leaving the ground each minute and the first stop will be at San Bernardino.

"Well, win the race or bust Gladys."

Humorist Will Rogers nickname the race the powder puff derby.

I'm certainly going to try to win this race, but if I don't, I hope you do right by your land is always low and low.

National excitement and media attention focused on the grueling, multi-day multi stop race across the nation sky.

There were multiple mishaps and accidents, including the tragic death of an accomplished female flier in Arizona.

Several contestants leveled strong accusations of sabotage and malicious mischief occurring during the overnight stops.

In the end, Louise Thaden won the race, followed by Gladys O'Donnell in second place.

Amelia Earhart finished third.

For Gladys, this event became the breakthrough she was waiting for in her burgeoning aviation career while in Cleveland, she participated in the national air races around a designated course.

Her effortless and precise turns around the course pylons enabled her to win two 60 mile races and a 50 mile race in which he averaged three miles per hour faster than the winner of a similar event in the men's division.

Gladys also won a special Cleveland to Pittsburgh race involving a 100 mile course.

The city of Long Beach was jubilant, euphoric and proud.

A huge celebration greeted Gladys on her return to Southern California.

An escort of army and navy airplanes accompanied her as she landed at Long Beach Airport, with thousands of adoring fans witnessing the homecoming.

A parade to City Hall followed.

Festivities concluded with a massive party, complete with dinner and dancing.

The local press had referred to Gladys as the flying housewife.

She was known affectionately as Long Beach's daughter and our Gladys.

In the following year of 1930, the second annual women's derby race began in Long Beach and ended in Chicago.

In addition to being a natural pilot, Gladys was also a natural politician.

She convinced the race organizers to let the City of Long Beach host the event.

There was controversy when Amelia Earhart insisted on flying an airplane with a larger, more powerful engine that had been used the previous year.

Gladys objected to the larger engine displacement, and ultimately the race committee did not allow the larger engine.

Amelia refused to participate.

Several other prominent female competitors, such as Poncho Barnes and Bobby Trout, were shut out from the race because they also had transitioned to more powerful engines and aircraft.

In the end, the derby only included six participants who were willing and able to fly with the smaller engines.

Nonetheless, the race to Chicago was won by Gladys O'Donnell and her legacy and Long Beach was enshrined forever.

After the cross-country derby concluded, the national air races were held in Chicago.

Gladys won the women's free for all around the pylons and placed second and third in two other races.

Spectators marveled at her ability to dove at a pylon and exact the nearly vertical wing turn, leaving others in the exhaust stream behind her on her return home to Long Beach.

She was honored with another huge heroin's reception.

Gladys continued racing and competing for the next several years.

However, as the Great Depression wore on in a troubled world, Gladys began thinking about her future apart from aviation.

Lloyd's flight school had failed and closed, and he was forced to go to work as a manager at his father's oil company.

Truth is, Lloyd was never able to fully embrace his wife's success because of his own pride and ego and his desire to be the star of the family.

Gladys decided to use her fame and popularity to engage in community service and related political activities.

Eventually, she became a leader in the women's wing of the Republican Party.

In 1937, Gladys was appointed to the Republican National Program Committee.

She wound up her career as the elected president of the National Federation of Republican Women with an office in Washington, DC.

Gladys Berry O'Donnell passed away from cancer on May eighth, 1973, at the age of 69 years earlier in the mid 1930s.

She served as international vice president of the Ninety-Nine's.

The original 99 were a group of 99 pioneering women pilots who formed the club to support and promote women's aviation.

The organization began as a result of the 1929 women's derby air race, where Gladys became famous by finishing in second place.

third place finisher Amelia Earhart served as the 99s first president.

In the late 1930s, the United States government began preparing for war.

The city of Long Beach and the local harbor area figured prominently in those war plans.

Terminal Island straddled the cities of Long Beach and Los Angeles and was the focal point for an official naval operating base.

The new base command and training facilities, along with the subsequent naval shipyard, were constructed on the Long Beach side of Terminal Island.

The Los Angeles side housed a commercial airfield which was taken over by the Navy in 1935.

The original Allen Field Commercial Air Facility on Terminal Island was renamed Reeves Field and became the most active navy ferrying base in the nation during World War two.

Approximately 200 waves women accepted for volunteer emergency service served at Reeves Field.

These women worked as mechanics, air traffic controllers and navigational trainers for the Navy's new male pilots.

Prior to 1935 and before the threat of war, aircraft manufacturer Donald Douglas was using Terminal Island to test by sea planes.

Douglas aircraft built and assembled for the Navy in November of 1940.

Douglas broke ground on land adjacent to the Long Beach airport for construction of a major military aircraft manufacturing plant.

The plant opened eleven months later in October 1941 as part of the Arsenal of Democracy Promise to the World by President Franklin Roosevelt.

The Long Beach Douglas aircraft plant was one of the most productive in the nation during wartime.

Approximately 42,000 workers reported to the plant daily at the war's peak, known by the famous moniker Rosie the Riveter.

Thousands of women perform difficult, often tedious and repetitive assembly line tasks to keep the aircraft plant functioning at maximum output.

For the first time in U.S. history.

Women were working on a massive scale in a modern, mechanically complex and physically challenging manufacturing environment.

They're successful and dedicated.

Efforts propelled America and its allies to win the war much faster, more efficiently and more overwhelmingly than would have occurred without the dedicated female workforce.

Douglas aircraft and other plants produced wartime airplanes as quickly as possible.

Meanwhile, the army needed to deliver airplanes from local factories in Southern California to other bases and to Liberty cargo ships for transport overseas.

Accordingly, the city of Long Beach agreed to let the army take control of the Long Beach airport for the duration of the war .

The army established a ferry command in Long Beach, designated as the sixth Ferrying Group.

Recognizing the dire need for more ferry pilots.

Experienced women pilots were being recruited by the army.

The chief recruiter was ace flier Nancy Harkness Love.

initially 28, of the most experienced female pilots in the nation, were invited to join the brand new Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron, known by the acronym WAFs.

The women began ferrying trainer aircraft to bases around the country in October 1942.

Eventually, their duties expanded to include flying sophisticated military aircraft in addition to trainer airplanes.

The army decided to divide up and disperse the female pilots to four different ferry groups around the country, and the sixth variant group in Long Beach was one of the four destinations.

five of the original WAFS were sent to Long Beach in February 1943.

Their squadron leader was Barbara Jane Erickson at age 22.

Barbara was the youngest of the five.

Barbara Jane Erickson grew up in Seattle, Washington.

Her mother had been a schoolteacher before marrying Barbara's father, a regional sales representative for Macmillan Book Publishers.

Coming from an educated family, Barbara was a bright student who did well with reading, math and science.

She was adventurous and enterprising at a young age when she turned six.

She spent the summer with her aunt and uncle in Alaska at age eleven.

She started babysitting to earn spending money during the Great Depression.

After high school, Barbara Erikson enrolled at the University of Washington while there in 1939.

She participated in a civil aviation program sponsored by the U.S. government and the Civil Aeronautics Authority, known as the CAA.

The civilian pilot training program was intended to train male pilots for the upcoming war effort.

But in order to make it seem less militaristic, the program allowed one woman to be trained in every group of ten students.

Barbara was accepted as one of four women in a class of 40 pilot trainees.

She soon proved she was the most skilled pilot in her entire class during a national flight competition held by the.

CAA Barbara won the northwest region, one of seven divisions, Barbara went to Washington, D.C., for the finals and finished fourth overall.

The six other regional winners were all men before becoming a member of the WAFs, Barbara Erickson worked at the Boeing aircraft plant in Seattle, helping assemble the wings on the B-17 bomber.

She told her boss she would one day fly the Big Bird and would let him know when she did.

She kept her promise and kept in touch with him until he passed away decades later, while in the Long Beach women's ferrying squadron.

Barbara enthusiastically embraced the opportunity to fly 17 different aircraft, from trainers to big bombers to cargo transports to fighter aircraft to attack bombers.

The fighter aircraft were known then as pursuits designated by the letter P, such as p38 P 47 and P-51.

Barbara Erickson flew every airplane model to roll off the line at Douglas and at the other factories in the area, including the Vultee, Lockheed, North American and Northrop plants.

She epitomized the gung ho spirit and demonstrated the unstoppable determination typical of women ferry pilots to honor her achievements.

Barbara was awarded the prestigious air medal during the war.

The medal recognized Barbara's stamina in delivering four different aircraft covering more than 8000 miles over the course of nine days.

Flights were restricted to daylight hours and cruising speeds typically averaged only about 200 miles per hour.

The Long Beach Army Air Base housed the Premiere Ferry and group within the Air Transport Command.

More planes on ferry missions flew out of Long Beach Army Airfield than any other Army Air Base during World War II.

Hollywood was nearby.

Famous movie actors and other celebrities who were drafted or joined the army would often frequent the Long Beach Army Air Base.

The food was considered the best available in the Army Command, with shrimp fried oysters and gourmet cheese served in silver chafing dishes for dancing.

The base's house band comprised the most popular big band musicians drafted into the Army, a Hollywood feature film about the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron was shot on location at the Long Beach Air Base.

The cast and crew of Ladies Courageous mingled with the real life women pilots and shared stories off camera between August and November of 1943 .

The movie, starring Loretta Young, was released in February 1944 as a general rule.

Women pilots in Long Beach were treated as equals to the male pilots and did not experience the type of discrimination and sexism occurring often at other bases around the country.

The local base commander in Long Beach, Colonel Ralph Spake, needed more pilots and he appreciated the vital and essential aviation service.

The women contributed.

Many of the male and female pilots stationed in Long Beach knew each other from the civilian pilot training program.

As the war ended.

Barbara Erickson married Jack London, a fellow pilot distantly related to the literary author also known as Jack London, who penned the classic novel The Call of the Wild.

Barbara and Jack remained in Long Beach, settling down and raising two daughters, both of whom became pilots.

first daughter Terry was hired as one of the first female pilots for Western airlines in 1976 and later became a 767 captain for Delta Airlines.

second daughter Christy joined Barbara in running an aviation business at the Long Beach airport before Christie became an executive for JetBlue Airlines.

Barbara remained active in the aviation industry and for a period of 17 years, was involved in organizing, coordinating and competing in the revitalized transcontinental powder puff derby for women pilots.

She was also a member of the Air Force Reserve for 20 years.

Additionally, Barbara helped charter the Long Beach chapter of the Nine-Nine's and served as its first chair in 1952.

Barbara Erickson London passed away on July seventh, 2013, at the age of 93.

About eight years earlier, a street at Long Beach Airport was named Barbara London Drive to honor her service in the military and her contributions to Long Beach and women's aviation history.

As the second World War progressed, the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron evolved, new members joined the ferrying groups from a women's flying training detachment, which was operating in Texas.

We were called the guinea pig class because they weren't sure we were ever going to.

make it, but we showed them at the suggestion of women's flying training founder Jacqueline Cochrane, women pilots were involved in other aviation duties, such as towing targets for anti-aircraft gunnery practice.

The acronym WAFs was changed to WASP to incorporate and encompass expanded duties.

WASP stood for Women Air Force Service pilots.

I'm very happy that we've trained thousands of women to fly there anyway.

I think it's going to be more aviation than anyone realizes.

In spite of military training and following all the army's procedures, women pilots were still considered civilian pilots and were never militarized during the war.

I lost six girls at Long Beach, and sometimes we had to take up a collection to figure out to get the body home and so forth.

There were no provisions she couldn't.

Her mother couldn't put a flag on the coffin and she couldn't pay us gold star on the window.

She couldn't call her daughter, a veteran, because we were in that nebulous place of being civilians, but attached to the military and being required to act as the like we were in the military but never being in the military abruptly.

As the war in Europe turned and the allies favor, all wasp activities were canceled by the army on December 20th, 1944, the women aviators did not receive military recognition nor veteran status.

If another national emergency arises, we will not again look upon a woman's flying organization as experimental, We're the lost last class of the WASP at ease.

We're the lost last class of the WASP at ease.

And we ain't gonna be here but long.

We had a group of very qualified women pilots that were badly, badly needed and we were sent home before the war was over.

And it was just it was the same way as the women in the factories when their job was done in.

The airplanes were all built.

They just said goodbye to them and send them home to very unceremoniously.

They went said, No, it's time to go back to the kitchen.

In 1977, 33 years later, an act of Congress finally recognized the WASP as true military personnel with veterans benefits.

In 2010, after yet another 33 years had passed, their surviving WASP members were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor at a special ceremony in Washington, DC.

Approximately 1,100 women participated in WASP activities during World War II.

38 women died in aircraft accidents while serving their country.

two of the first five women, ferry pilots at Long Beach Army Airfield came from very different backgrounds.

Cornelia Clark Fort, was the dau of a prominent medical doctor who also founded an insurance company in Nashville, Tennessee.

Evelyn Sharp was the adopted daughter of a childless couple who spent the 1920's and the Great Depression years in rural Nebraska.

Evelyn's adopted father ran a series of small town local businesses, which always struggle to make ends meet in difficult times.

Both Cornelia Fort and Evelyn Sharp were excellent pilots.

Among the most experienced and skilled female fliers in the United States at the dawn of the second World War.

Cornelia Clark Fort was born in February of 1919 in Nashville.

She grew up on the massive pastoral Fortland Estate, a few miles from the city.

Her father, Rufus Fort, had acquired a fortune initially from serving as the chief surgeon and superintendent of Nashville City Hospital.

He later created the Prosperous National life and Accidental Insurance Company.

The social life Cornelia experienced as a child and teenager was one of plenty filled with elaborate celebrations, formal debutante dances and private higher education, including Sarah Lawrence College in New York City.

Cornelia Fort struggled to find a meaningful and invigorating purpose until she found aviation.

She learned to fly over the open fields of the Nashville perimeter, including soaring over her father's estate after he passed away.

In the air Cornelia experienced exuberance and exhilaration that went well beyond mere words in describing it.

She was fearless and took to aviation as if it were part of her DNA.

As the war in Europe loomed ever closer, Cornelia left Nashville for a job in Fort Collins, Colorado, teaching aviation through the civilian pilot training program.

When a better aviation job was offered in Honolulu, Hawaii, Cornelia accepted it.

She trained lower ranking military men and government employees looking for advancement as pilots.

She also flew tourists around the beautiful islands.

one of Cornelia students scheduled a lesson for early Sunday morning, December seventh, 1941, as she was bringing the student back to the airport to practice landings.

Cornelia was suddenly involved in a near collision with a bigger plane heading straight toward her.

She climbed immediately and looked down to see the familiar rising sand markings of a Japanese zero aircraft.

The Japanese pilot fired the aircraft's machine guns at her, but Cornelia managed to escape and land with her student unhurt.

A feature film variation of her experience was portrayed in the movie Tora.

Tora!

Tora!

"I've taken over Davey!"

When she returned to the mainland a couple of months after the Pearl Harbor attack, Cornelia was interviewed by the press as one of the first American pilots to engage with the enemy in World War II.

Articulate and well-spoken.

Cornelia became a national sensation and participated in war bond drives.

She was featured in newsreels projected in movie theaters across the country.

Soon, she was the second woman pilot signed on for the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron.

Cornelia was assigned to the Long Beach Army Airfield.

She was living a dream by serving her country as a pilot and enjoying life in Southern California.

The only real resistance she felt in Long Beach came from an unexpected source.

The wives of the male pilots in the Army Air Force, initially, the wives of the Army pilots in Long Beach demanded the base commander establish a policy preventing women pilots from copilot ing with their husbands.

However, as the war quickly progressed and the need arose, women were permitted to copilot with men.

Unfortunately, Cornelia Ford's time as an army ferry pilot was cut short during a flight delivering trainer aircraft to a base in Texas.

Cornelia was flying solo in close formation, with several male pilots also ferrying aircraft.

The landing gear and weighing of another airplane accidentally collided with the wing and cockpit of Cornelius plane.

Her aircraft spiraled down and crashed on March 21st, 1943.

Cornelia Clark Fort became the first woman pilot to die while ferrying an airplane in service for the army.

I just consider her a hero, someone who lived for something bigger than she was someone who gave of herself in a cause she believed in for a country she loved .

She was 24 years old.

Barbara Erikson was Cornelius Squadron commander.

Barbara attended the funeral in Nashville and was deeply affected by the loss.

Evelyn Genevieve Sharp was born on October 20th, 1919 in Montana.

Her biological mother was divorced from her husband and had no way to support a child.

Evelyn was quickly adopted by John and Mary Sharp, who were an older, childless couple.

John moved the family to Nebraska, ultimately settling in the city of Ord, the small town located in the center of the state.

Unlike Cornelia Fort, Evelyn grew up feeling the sting of the Great Depression.

She was known as a girl with a lot of spirit and was one of the best athletes in her town, excelling at soccer, tennis and swimming.

At age 15, she was given a chance to fly from an accomplished pilot who owed money to her father, Evelyn.

Skill was noticeable from the beginning.

She sold soloed after 13 hours of flight time and received her amateur pilot's license at age 16.

The local newspaper ran stories about this unusual schoolgirl aviatrix who was one of the youngest female pilots in the entire nation.

Other newspapers around the Midwest and beyond also began to publish articles.

Soon, Evevlyn was receiving fan mail from 15 different states across the country.

By the summer of 1938, with her commercial license in hand, Evelyn went on the barnstorming circuit around Nebraska, taking passengers up for joy rides at county fairs and other special events.

After a year and a half of barnstorming and finding it difficult to make enough money to support herself, Evelyn began looking for an aviation job with a regular paycheck.

In 1940, she found a job training pilots in the civilian pilot training program in Spearfish, South Dakota.

Eventually, Evelyn pursued a similar job on the West Coast, where there was more demand and higher pay.

She found an opportunity in Bakersfield, California.

Evelyn received an invitation to join the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron in September of 1942.

She was the 17th member accepted in the WAFS and had acquired the most air time of all, with more than 2950 hours total.

Evelyn was assigned to the Long Beach Squadron and became the best friend of Barbara Erikson while at Long Beach.

Evelyn flew the gamut of airplanes, trainers, bombers, transports pursuits and attack bombers.

She was one of the most experienced and top rated pilots in the women's ferrying squadron.

She also displayed leadership qualities.

Evelyn had everything going her way in the Women Air Force Service Pilots Command until a fateful morning on April third, 1944, taking off from an airfield near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in a twin engine p38 Lightning.

The left engine failed immediately after liftoff.

Evelyn turned the plane to avoid crash landing in a heavily populated area.

The powerful p38 grazed some treetops and slammed to the ground on a hillside with violent force.

24 year old Evelyn Genevieve Sharp was ejected and killed instantly from a broken neck.

When news came back to Barbara Erickson, Barbara was traumatized and devastated by the tragic loss of her best friend.

In the decades after the war, the Long Beach Municipal Airport transitioned from military to commercial use.

The Air Force pulled out of the city in 1960 by 1964.

Long Beach was listed among the busiest airports in the country and was known especially for small aircraft and flight training.

In 1965.

Long Beach Airport tallied 422,600 takeoffs and landings, placing Long Beach second in the nation behind only Chicago's O'Hare Airport.

Los Angeles International, known as LAX, finished third.

Fran Berra was one of the women who made history and brought fame to Long Beach in the postwar era.

In June of 1966, France set a world altitude record for small twin engine propeller aircraft without turbochargers.

She flew a piper Aztec at 40,154 feet.

The flight took place over the skies of Long Beach, where she lived and worked as a flight instructor, as well as an official FAA designated examiner in her FAA capacity.

She ultimately administered more than 3000 check rides for new pilots and experienced pilots pursuing advance ratings during her long and eventful aviation career.

Fran Berra would win and accumulate more air race trophies than any other female pilot born as Frances Sebastian in 1924.

Fran was the youngest of eight children.

Her parents were Hungarian immigrant farmers and rural Michigan.

At age 16, she had saved $80 and began hitchhiking more than 30 miles to the closest airport for flight lessons without her parents knowing about it.

During World War two, she became a fall parachutist and joined the Women's Ambulance Transport Corps to provide medical assistance for people in remote areas.

Fran wanted to join the Women Air Force Service pilots, but was too young.

After the war, she landed a job ferrying surplus aircraft around the country.

Then she married Gordon Berra, who operated the Gordon Berra flying service.

They moved to California in the early 1950s, eventually settling in Long Beach.

In 1961, she was invited as one of only 25 women to participate in a NASA female test program, which was canceled before she could become an astronaut.

Her greatest passion was competitive, flying in women's air races.

Fran was known for pushing the limits, keeping the air speed indicator pinned close to the red line on each aircraft's metering device.

I started air racing in 1951.

I raced every year, sometimes more than once, and I gave it up in 2011.

I did several different races.

There was a Powder Puff race, which I won seven times, which was the record nobody else had.

Fran won the all woman transcontinental air race, still known as the Powder Puff Derby seven times in the 1950s and sixties.

She finished second five times.

She was also a seven time winner in the Palms two Pines Women's Air Race from Santa Monica, California, to Bend, Oregon.

I was very shy and I just wanted to prove that I could do it as well or better than the rest of them, and I was very competitive and we had a lot of girls who had more time than I am better airplanes and so forth as a helicopter test pilot.

Fran became the first woman to fly a helicopter without a tail rotor, acknowledging her experience and skills.

Governor Ronald Reagan appointed Fran to California's Aviation Educational Task Force in 1969.

I mentor young people, young girls and tell them they can do this.

And now many of the young girls that I taught to fly, they are now airline captains.

In my day, they wouldn't hire us, but today I said, there's no limit to what you can do.

Fran Berra moved to the San Diego area in the late sixties.

She was named in Who's Who in Aviation in 1973 and also was given the Woman Pilot of the Year award in 1980 by the Silver Wings fraternity.

Fran was inducted in the Women in Aviation Pioneers Hall of Fame in 2006 and was given a wall of honor listing at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in 2007 How old are you today Miss Franny?

I think I'm 39.

OK, Francis?

Sebastian Berra died on February 10th, 2018.

She accumulated more than 25,000 hours of flight time in her 93 years, along with almost 200 trophies, plaques and awards.

When Amelia Earhart disappeared in the South Pacific in 1937, she was on the home stretch of her historic attempt to be the first woman pilot to circle the globe for nearly two decades following World War II.

No woman pilot had circled the Earth in one continuous loop.

Finally, in spring of 1964, the globe was circled by two separate women pilots, both flying solo in small aircraft.

Jerrie Mock, a housewife in Columbus, Ohio, was the first woman to finish and around the world solo flight in a single engine airplane.

Jerrie returned to Columbus on April 17th, 1964.

Her route was north of the equator and shorter than Amelia Earhart route by more than 4600 miles.

Nonetheless, marks a solo journey in a single engine airplane was difficult and challenging and was an impressive historic first.

Mrs. Jerrie Mark pauses briefly in Oakland, California, as she nears the end, a very successful round the world solo flight.

After a quick check out of her eleven year old light plane, the Ohio Housewife prepares to take off for Columbus on the final leg of a 23,000 mile journey with 21 stops in 29 days.

This is the first woman to make the solo world flight as she's racked up a flock of records in the market as she arrives a hearty greeting in Columbus.

Tired but happy.

This is Mike receives a governmental award for her feet.

I playing Housewife.

Joan Merriam Smith of Long Beach was an experienced pilot.

She was married to Long Beach Navy Lieutenant Commander Captain Jack Smith.

Joan planned to duplicate Amelia Earhart's route as precisely as possible, going the distance along Amelia's equatorial route.

Just as Amelia had flown a twin engine airplane, Joan Marriam also flew a twin engine.

The Piper Apache Joan Marriam flew around the world was named City of Long Beach to honor one of her best sponsors.

The Apache flew through extremely difficult equatorial weather and suffered multiple failures and mechanical parts, which required repairs in remote locations in faraway countries.

On March 31st, 1964, Joan flew over the mysterious Amazon jungle in Brazil.

She landed at an airfield in the midst of a political coup.

d'état.

the president of Brazil, had been overthrown by the Brazilian armed forces after a couple of tense days at the airfield.

John was allowed to proceed on her journey because of all the delays.

Joan Mariam's equatorial adventure took 56 and a half days.

She arrived at her final destination with a Coast Guard aerial escort because of a treacherous fuel tank problem.

The celebratory landing at Oakland, California, occurred on May 12th, 1964, after touching down 27 year old Joan Marriam received a congratulatory wired message from President Lyndon Johnson and a special message from Amelia Earhart.

Sister Muriel Earhart Morrissey thanked Joan for graciously dedicating the flight to Amelia.

After ten years of wanting to do this and the opportunity finally came after many disappointments with this ten years not being able to find sponsors and not been able to make this trip when I did have the chance to leave on March 17, I really couldn't believe that I was going.

Matter of fact, we're halfway around the world.

I couldn't believe I was actually making the trip.

Following her successful global circumnavigation, Joan Marriam had hoped to monetize her experience with aviation contracts and promotional opportunities.

She needed to pay off the 17,000 dollar loan she still owed on her airplane.

She signed a contract to provide charter flights for a mining company executive.

However, only eight months after completing her famous worldwide journey, disaster struck, Joan and the mining executive were flying from Las Vegas to Southern California on January 9th, 1965.

A fire started in the cockpit, forcing a rough crash landing in the desert about 20 miles southwest of Daggett, California The airplane was destroyed and any chance of cashing in further was lost.

Joan and her passenger survived the crash.

She suffered a broken nose and some bruising.

Fate was unkind to Joan Marriam.

A month later, on February 17th, 1965, Joan was test piloting a turbo charged Cessna 182.

She was accompanied by Trixie Ann Schubert, a renowned journalist who was Joan's good friend and fellow pilot Trixie, Ann had been writing a book manuscript about Joan's world flight adventure.

They took off from Long Beach Airport, heading to a destination unknown near the San Gabriel Mountains.

The aircraft unexpectedly crashed near the mountain town of Wrightwood California, killing both Joan and Trixie Ann Schubert.

The cause of the accident was sudden violent turbulence and a downdraft swirling around the mountain range.

Joan Mariam's Smith was the first woman to fly solo around the world in a twin engine aircraft at age 27.

She was the youngest woman to fly around the world at that time.

Additionally, Joan was the first pilot to fly solo 27,750 miles along the equatorial route in one continuous trip.

There were other firsts as well for her accomplishments.

She was honored posthumously with the Harman International Aviation Trophy.

The Harmon Trophy named her as Aviatrix of the Year in 1965.

The trophy was awarded to Jones heartbroken husband, Navy Lieutenant Commander Captain Jack Smith.

For more than 100 years, women have been making aviation history in Long Beach, California, by the late 1920s.

six women who lived in Long Beach were licensed to fly.

Nationwide, only about 200 women in total were licensed at the time, meaning Long Beach was home to 3% of all U.S. licensed women pilots in the first major decade of women's aviation.

nine decades later, a conference for Women in Aviation International was held in Long Beach.

It was the 30th annual conference, drawing more than 4000 participants from 20 different countries.

Representatives from the military, the commercial airline industry, business aviation and general aviation were on hand, offering advice, insight and job opportunities.

No doubt the early women pioneers in aviation would have been pleased to see this gathering of so many women from all over the world.

They were sharing the glory of flight and describing adventure, friendship and duty for women today who have the dream, the skill and the determination.

There are no restrictions and no barriers.

The sky awaits.

And just as it was 100 years ago, gravity is no match for women with hearts above the clouds.