Women Aviators (20 page)
Authors: Karen Bush Gibson
Parental support came from her mother. Wally's mother recalled wanting to fly after taking a ride with a barnstormer when she was 16, but her father had told her she never would fly because she was female. Now that she had a daughter, Wally's mother didn't want her daughter's gender to limit what she could do. When Wally wasn't quite 21, she needed parental permission to participate in astronaut training. Wally's mother not only gave her permission, but she also drove her daughter to the week of tests in Albuquerque.
Several years earlier, after receiving her pilot's license at age 16, Wally was off to Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri. She enrolled in its aviation program and was first in her class of 24 fliers.
People often wonder if Wally's name is real. Yes and no. She was born Mary Wallace Funk. Like some people, she went by her middle name, but when the time came to put her name on her Christmas stocking, Wallace wouldn't fit. Not a problemâshe just shortened it to Wally, and that's what it's been ever since. The Australian band Spiderbait liked her name so much that they used it in the name of one of their albums,
The Flight of Wally Funk.
Wally Funk is an unforgettable name for an unforgettable woman.
As more private airplanes and commercial airlines filled the skies, aviation became increasingly dangerous. The government assigned first the Department of Commerce and then the Civil Aeronautics Authority (CAA) the responsibility of enforcing air-traffic rules, certifying aircraft, and licensing pilots in the United States.
On June 30, 1956, a tragic accident between two passenger aircrafts occurred over the Grand Canyon, killing all 128 passengers on both planes. Within two years, Mike Monroney, Democratic senator from Oklahoma, introduced a bill to establish an independent agency to oversee civil aviation safety. The bill, after it was passed and signed into law, created the Federal Aviation Agencyâlater known as the Federal Aviation Administration and now better known as the FAA.
In 1966, president Lyndon Johnson introduced the Department of Transportation (DOT) to oversee all transportation policies, and the FAA became part of the Department of Transportation. Safety inspectors, air-traffic controllers, and safety marshals became important roles within the FAA. The FAA also ushered in modern technology to improve safety, including global positioning systems and other automated systems.
With the primary mission of advancing aviation safety, the FAA continues to perform research that leads to improvements in aviation. Excluding the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, there have been only 0.018 fatal accidents for every 100,000 planes that take off. (FAA duties changed soon after the 9/11 attacks. It continues to monitor safety and investigate accidents, but aviation security was taken over by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), a department of Homeland Security.)
Wally returned to school, earning a bachelor of science degree in secondary education at Oklahoma State University with a minor in aviation. OSU's aviation program was popular, with up to 200 students per year, but Wally stuck outânot just because she was the only female but also because she had superior flying skills and a positive attitude. She loved competing against the boys. She was a member of the school's Flying Aggies, winning trophies at collegiate air meets. The team uniform was white coveralls, cowboy boots, and a cowboy hat. Wally earned even more pilot certifications while at college.
After graduating at age 20, she was refused employment at Continental and United Airlines. She said they told her they had no women's bathrooms in their training facilities. Instead, she became the chief flight instructorâand the first female flight instructorâat Fort Sill, an army base in southwest Oklahoma. In more than 50 years of flight instruction, Wally has soloed more than a thousand students, putting them through various pilot certifications. She has also been honored with the FAA Gold Seal, an award given to flight instructors.
Wally's job as a flight instructor was just one of many firsts. As the first woman to complete the FAA General Aviation Operations Inspector Academy course in 1971, she learned about procedures for performing flight testing, certifying pilots, and handling accidents. This information became useful when she became the first woman investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board. Wally toured the world to lecture on safety training. She was the first woman to hold many positions within the FAA, including air safety investigator.
One day in 1960, Wally picked up the October issue of
Life
magazine. In it was a photo of a honey-blond pilot named Jerrie Cobb, who, according to the magazine, was proof that women should go into space. Wally decided she was going along with Jerrie Cobb. By the time she was 21, Wally had started the first phase of women's astronaut training. Although the women of the Mercury 13 scored well in all their testingâa few even did better than their male counterpartsâCongress ruled that women didn't have the experience and abilities needed to be astronauts. This was 1963. A year later, the first woman, Valentina Tereshkova of the Soviet Union, went into space. Wally kept sending in her application to NASA. Twenty years later, American Sally Ride became the first American woman in space.
Wally is still waiting for her opportunity. She hoped it would be in 2013 on a private space flight, the Solaris X.
Wally retired from the National Transportation Safety Board in 1985 to devote her time to safety education. Today, she travels and makes presentations, including one she calls “How to Fly and Stay Alive.” With all her work and training in safety investigations, Wally hopes that the more people know about
air safety, the smaller the chances are that an accident will happen. Her goal is to make the already safe skies even safer.
In the late 1960s, Wally spent three years as a goodwill flying ambassador, traveling more than 80,000 miles as she visited 50 countries in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.
When not working, Wally enters air races, including the Air Race Classic, Palms to Pines Race, and the Pacific Air Race. She flew into a first-place finish from San Diego to Santa Rosa, California, against 80 competitors. She also enjoys ballooning, hang gliding, and skydiving.
In 1985, Wally was inducted into the Women in Aviation International Pioneer Hall of Fame. Despite earning this great achievement, Wally hasn't stopped pushing herself. Today she looks forward to the day when she can have the ultimate experience: going to space. In the meantime, she remains as busy as ever. Living in Fort Worth, Texas, she flies almost every day. She has served as chief pilot at North Texas Aero airport. In 2010, she learned how to fly a Black Hawk helicopter. With 15 ratings and licenses and experience with more than 30 types of planes, she continues to lecture, teach flight training, and consult for aerospace companies. She has also remained active with the Ninety-Nines.
Wally is much in demand as a speaker. Her exuberant personality and quick laugh make her popular with audiences. Ask her to inspect a plane, and she'll whip out her “Wally stick” and check the prop for cracks. People remember what Wally Funk tells them.
Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream
by Tanya Lee Stone and Margaret A. Weitekamp (Candlewick, 2009)
The Mercury 13: The True Story of Thirteen Women and the Dream of Space Flight
by Martha Ackmann and Lynn Sherr (Random House, 2004)
“Wally Funk” on Ninety-Nines, Inc. International Organization of Women Pilots website,
www.ninety-nines.org/index.cfm/wally_funk.htm
“Wally Funk” on Women Fly Resource Center website,
http://womenaviators.org/WallyFunk.html
Wally Funk website,
http://wallyfly.com
Aerobatic Firefighter
T
HE AIRPLANE SOARS STRAIGHT
up. It seems to freeze in the sky before it goes into a series of loops and barrel rolls, like the wildest roller coaster ever built. A white-gray jet stream shoots from the plane like a ribbon ready to be tied. Then the plane flips over, flying upside down.
The plane drops close to the ground in a feat of low-level extreme aerobatics. With one wrong move, it would crash. Other than the plane, the only sounds are the collective oohs and ahhs from the audience.
This scene typifies the life of Patty Wagstaff, who performs exciting aerial acrobatics for millions of people throughout the world. As a six-time member of the US Aerobatic Team, she has won gold, silver, and bronze medals in international competitions.
Patty was born in 1951 into an air force family in the United States, and they moved to Japan when she was nine years old. Her father was a 747 captain for Japan Air Lines, so she grew up around airplanes. (Her sister, Toni, would later fly a 727 for Continental Airlines.) Her father used to let her sit on his lap in the cockpit of the planes. When she was 10, she had her first exciting moment with an airplane: she got to take over the controls of her father's DC-6.
Patty's early life in Japan led to a love of travel as well. After traveling throughout Southeast Asia and Europe, she moved to a small boat and sailed the west coast of Australia.
Returning to the United States in 1979, Patty made the southwest Alaska town of Dillingham her home. She took a job that required her to travel to villages that were accessible only by air. But when the chartered plane she was riding in crashed on her first trip, she decided it was time for her to learn to fly. She learned on a Cessna 185 floatplane in Alaska's often-treacherous weather and terrain. While taking lessons, she met her future husband, Bob.
Since learning to fly, Patty has received other certifications, including commercial, instrument, multiengine, seaplane, and commercial helicopter ratings. She can fly anything from a World War II fighter to a jet. Patty also teaches flying and instrument rating to others.