WOMEN PILOTS AVIATION 10 PRESS PHOTOGRAPHS 1928-1939

Item #1275

The 1920s were deemed The Golden Age of Aviation. By 1928 less than a dozen women held pilots licenses. These ten press photos, pay respect to innovative women aviators between the years 1928-1939. Women climbed inside rickety planes with open cock-pits and readied for the beginning of WWII.

Miss Jean Hughes, pictured on the first page at the age of 21 in 1939, took her first solo flight years prior at the age of 15. She became Britain’s first female test pilot and acted as a ferry pilot during World War II. AT the age of 17 she became the youngest qualified female pilot in Britain.

The Associated Press owned the rights the photo of Mabel Willebrandt’s first flight. Willebrandt, referred to as “The First Lady of Law”, was an American lawyer who served as the US Assistant Attorney General from 1921-1929. In this photo she was about to embark on her first flight on a passenger plane.

Nancy Hopkins was the president of the International Women’s Air and Space Museum. Prior to this accolade, Nancy Hopkins participated in the Women’s Dixie Air Derby of National Air Forces in 1930 (the first of which was held the previous year). She also pictured here in 1930 at Roosevelt Field.

Mary Wiggins was foremost a Hollywood stuntwoman. Wiggins took up flying, earned a pilot’s license and started parachute jumping and wing walking by 1931. In the collection is a record of her 13th parachute jump made at Santa Monica Airport on August 17, 1931.

Elinor Smith aka Freeport’s “Flying Flapper”, was granted a pilots license in 1928. She is celebrated here for becoming a radio announcer for NBC in 1930. Her job was to cover aviation events. Notably, she was one of the first women to refuel a plane mid-flight.

Helen Hicks born in 1911 in New York, was a professional golfer. She is pictured here in 1934 entering the cockpit of a plane at Roosevelt Field, NY.

Mrs. Genevieve Savage, “The Army’s only Flying Wife”, was the wife of Capt. Charles Savage. She was an active duty member. She died in a plane crash in 1937.

Miss Francis Jackson was the only woman in the aeronautics branch of the commerce department who has taken to flying in 1929. This same year she made her first solo flight.

Possess a piece of women’s aviation history — a turning point in world history!

All images are contained in plastic sleeves. Bound in a three ring binder. Most images are provided with detailed information on verso. In good condition.

Price: $500.00