Authors: Karen Bush Gibson
T
HE NEWSROOM OF THE
Chicago Defender
was a noisy place in 1936âfilled with the sounds of clacking typewriter keys, ringing telephones, and talking reporters. But all that came to a standstill when a beautiful young woman walked in one day. She looked like a model. Wearing white breeches that disappeared into her boots, she seemed ready to ride a horse.
The city editor hurried over to her and showed her to his office. He offered her a seat, trying to ignore the eyes of his staff, who were watching them instead of doing their work.
“I'm Willa Brown. I'm an aviatrix,” she announced. Early women pilots used the gender-specific word “aviatrix” rather than “aviator.” “We're putting on an air showâall black pilotsâ at the Harlem Airport [near Chicago]. We're hoping that we can
count on you, the main newspaper for our black community, to support us in publicizing our event.”
The city editor, Enoch Waters, knew of one other female African American pilot. Bessie Coleman had often been reported on by the
Chicago Defender
during her lifetime. The only other African American pilots known of in Chicago were Hubert Fauntleroy Julian, also known as “the Black Eagle,” and John Robinson, who was in Ethiopia at the time.
Waters would later write an article about the confidence and determination of his visitor in an article titled, W
ILLA
B
ROWN VISITS THE
C
HICAGO
D
EFENDER.
She told him that there were about 30 African American aviators, although most were students. Cornelius Coffey was the leader. He held a commercial pilot's license and certified mechanic's license and was a certified flight instructor. Willa neglected to add that she was married to Coffey and helped run the school.
Waters was fascinated and, with a photographer along, attended the air show, which had drawn an audience of 200 to 300. Willa was delighted he was covering the air show and offered to take the city editor up for a ride. He wrote, “She was piloting a Piper Cub, which seemed to me, accustomed as I was to commercial planes, to be a rather frail craft. It was a thrilling experience, and the maneuversâfigure eights, flip-overs and stallsâwere exhilarating, though briefly frightening. I wasn't convinced of her competence until we landed smoothly.”
Willa Beatrice Brown was born in Glasgow, Kentucky, on January 22, 1906, but later moved to Terre Haute, Indiana, to attend high school and college. At 21, she began teaching business in a high school in Gary, Indiana. She was the youngest high school
teacher in the school system. But, dissatisfied with her life, she eventually moved to Chicago to work as a social worker. She also attended Northwestern University, where she earned her master's degree in business administration.
In the 1930s, Willa joined the Challenger Air Pilots Association, an aviation group created by Cornelius Coffey and John Robinson in Chicago. They had to teach themselves to fly because no one else would, due to their race. They also built the first airport for African Americans in Chicago. Harlem Field was located on the southwest side of Chicago. The city's airports, like its neighborhoods, were segregated at the time. Cornelius was not only a pilot and certified flight instructor, but he was also one of the best aviation mechanics in the Chicago area.
Willa took flying lessons from Cornelius and received her own private pilot's license in 1938. A year later, she had her commercial license, making her the first African American woman to hold both regular and commercial licenses. After marrying, Cornelius and Willa started the Coffey School of Aeronautics. Willa taught flight and ground school and also held a Master Mechanic Certificate.
Willa wasn't the only female African American pilot in the 1930s. There was also Janet Harmon Bragg. Like Edna Gardner Whyte, Janet was a nurse who loved to fly. With her income from working as a nurse, she bought an airplane for the Challenger Aero Club, of which she was the first president.
Janet was the first African American woman to earn a full commercial pilot's license, but it was a struggle. On her first flight test, the examiner indicated that she gave a perfect flight, but he wouldn't give her a commercial license because of her race and gender. Although she eventually received her commercial license, she couldn't get a job as a pilot. Janet volunteered to assist during World War II, both as a pilot and a nurse, but she
was refused for both because of her race. She was also turned down by the Women's Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs).
Willa continued to face discrimination both as an African American and as a woman. People from her own neighborhood thought her flying was shameful because she was a woman. Willa could do nothing but shrug her shoulders and go on. But both Janet and Willa also served as role models for other African American women interested in flying.
In 1939, Willa was instrumental in forming the National Negro Airmen Association of America. The purpose of the organization was to promote African Americans as aviation cadets for the US military. So far, the government had refused admitting African Americans into programs such as the Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP), created in 1938 to train pilots in case the United States became involved in the war in Europe and the Pacific. As director of the Coffey School of Aeronautics, Willa pushed for black pilots to be included in programs like the CPTP. The military eventually chose the Coffey School as one of six African American schools to be part of the CPTP. Willa soon became the CPTP coordinator for Chicago.
Not long after, Willa and Cornelius began specializing in training pilots and mechanics for wartime and after the war. They taught many of the famous Tuskegee Airmen at their school and at the Air Corps pilot-training program at the Tuskegee Institute. Dorothy Layne McIntyre was one African American who received a pilot's license through the Civilian Pilot Training Program at her college in West Virginia, where she studied bookkeeping. During World War II, Dorothy taught aviation mechanics.
Willa was appointed a lieutenant in the Civil Air Patrol in 1941. She was the first African American woman to serve as an officer. She and her husband developed CAP Squadron 613
through the school. She also coordinated war-training service for the Civil Aeronautics Authority (CAA). Her efforts led to the integration of African Americans into the military. She taught aviation at both the Coffey School and at Chicago-area high schools.
Willa's idol was Bessie Coleman, so she organized an annual memorial flyover above Bessie's grave, a tradition that continued for many years.
After being instrumental in desegregating the US military in 1948, Willa returned to teaching high school. In 1972, she was appointed to the Women's Advisory Board of the Federal Aviation Administration. Her last flight was at age 86; she died of a stroke three years later.
Women like Willa and Janet Bragg worked on changing attitudes about African American pilots. Their efforts helped African Americans of both genders in aviation, and their legacies live on. Eleanor Williams became the first certified air-traffic-control specialist in 1971. Betty Payne joined the air force after college. When she heard they were planning to admit women for pilot and navigation training, she signed up for the first class and received her navigator's wings on October 12, 1977. Patrice Clarke-Washington became the first African American woman to become a captain for a commercial airline (UPS) in 1994.
“Civilian Pilot Training Program” on National Museum of the US Air Force website,
www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=8475
“Willa Brown” on Women Fly Resource Center website,
http://womenaviators.org/WillaBrown.html
“Willa Brown Chappell” on Aviation Museum of Kentucky website,
www.ket.org/trips/aviation/chappell.htm
A
irplanes were first used for combat during World War I. Although there were capable women pilots in the United States, none was allowed to participate in military flying. In Europe, however, female pilots from Russia and France did fly during wartime.
The world's first female combat pilot, Princess Eugenie M. Shakhovskaya of Russia, flew reconnaissance missions for the Russian tsar in 1914. This cousin of Tsar Nicholas II had received her aviator's license in 1912. Princess Eugenie was granted the rank of ensign in Russia's first aerial squadâand executed maneuvers against the Germans.
By the time World War II had started, even more qualified women pilots were available, but the United States and Western European countries refused to allow women to fly in combat. Pilots such as Nancy Love and Jackie Cochran knew the capabilities of women pilots. At the very least, they felt they should be able to free up the male pilots for combat flying.
In 1939, Germany invaded Poland. Great Britain and France declared war on Germany. While civil flying opportunities
were curtailed by the war, there remained a need for pilots to deliver mail and dispatches and transport people during wartime. The greatest need was in ferrying military planes to the squadrons of the Royal Air Force. The demand was so great that it was suggested that women pilots assume ferrying duties, but many in Great Britain found the idea ridiculous.
Commercial pilot Pauline Gower was determined to bring the idea to reality, however. On January 1, 1940, Pauline was allowed to put a group of eight women pilots to work by ferrying small trainers called Tiger Moths. And thus the British Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) was born.
As the war progressed the next year, the demand for ferrying fighter planes and bombers was greater than what the male pilots could accomplish. Ferrying duties for the women increased to cover other military aircraft. Great Britain's proximity to Germany made ferrying planes dangerous. Being shot out of the sky was a very real possibility.
Pauline was able to add more women pilots to the ATA. There were not only mixed (male and female) ferrying pools but also all-female ones. Foreign pilots were recruited by the ATA too. American pilots were the largest group of foreign members of the ATA, including a group of 25 women brought by American pilot Jacqueline Cochran. One of the pilots that Cochran recruited was her friend, Helen Richey, the first woman to train army pilots and fly a commercial airliner. The ATA, composed of 166 women and 1,152 men, delivered more than 300,000 aircraft during the war.
Although the United States hadn't declared its intentions in the war yet, it did start the Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP) to provide pilot training. At its start, the CPTP allowed one woman to be trained for every ten men. Within two years, however, women were banned from the program.
The United States entered World War II when Pearl Harbor was attacked on December 7, 1941. Through the efforts of women such as Jackie Cochran and Nancy Love, women pilots could aid the war effort through flying organizations like the Women's Airforce Service Pilots (WASP).
Approximately 25,000 women signed up, although many weren't eligible. Women pilots were required to be at least 5 feet tall and between the ages of 21 and 35. A high school education was also necessary, in addition to at least 200 hours of flying time. The number of flight hours was gradually reduced, while the height requirement was increased. In the end, 1,830 candidates were accepted, and 1,074 women completed the program.
According to WASP pilot Violet “Vi” Cowden, WASPs did 80 percent of all US flying from 1943 to 1944. They flew more than 60 million miles (96 million kilometers) in every type of military plane. Besides delivering aircraft to military airfields, other duties included towing targets, flight instruction, and testing planes. It was a seven-day-a-week job.
WASPs.
Courtesy of the US Air Force
Thirty-eight WASPs died in service, beginning with Cornelia Fort, who died on March 21, 1943. She was on a ferrying flight when a male pilot clipped the wings of the plane she was flying. Fort was the first woman pilot to die in the line of duty for the US military. Gertrude Tompkins Silver disappeared while on a mission flying a P-51 to California. After an extensive search, the army ruled that she was missing and presumed dead.