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The Aircraft Aspect of Shoppolis Islands

My name is Cheney, and I would like to tell you about the aircraft aspect of our islands.  Shoppolis Islands is a considerable distance from everywhere because of its obscure location in the South Pacific.  From a satellite, SI is but a spot on the azure blue of the ocean, but to us it is home.  This thirteen island group is heavily dependent upon its aircraft traffic and its sea traffic.  We are served by submarine, surface ship and aircraft.  Our airport has always been a small one but our control center is second to none.  It has to be part of our military deterrence system as well as our commercial and private aircraft system.  Our traffic controllers are required to do, at least, what is asked of those working the world's most highly traveled airports.  Salvatore Salinda, Blake Trent, Sally Sands Morton, Betty Crane, Elliot Formosa, Bill Sing, Kelly Proud, Brandon Condon, Jane Filey, Benjamin Eddie Bow, Sam Burger, Philippe Francone, Charlie Pinchiotti and Warf Reluski comprise our staff of tower people. 

Mary Wu heads up our crew and makes sure that we are ready for anything at any time.  Mary has vast experience from around the world and serves on the SI Readiness Board of the Executive Staff.  Her third son, Dante, is an independent controller in the Far East working on a rotating basis at remote airfields.  We are quite proud of our controllers and supervisors, all of whom must be licensed pilots at advanced levels.

Aircraft Flown in WWII

Jonny Grant James was considerate enough to take time away from caring for the antique, vintage aircraft in the possession of Shoppolis Islands to compile the following list.  Jonny, who was a Major in the Vietnam Era of the United States, flew reconnaissance aircraft. His enthusiasm and knowledge overflow his experience when he admits that he has hydraulic fluid running in his veins rather than blood.

Connie Parker, a math teacher at the Anna Rogoff School, has begun to put together a listing of famous female flyers, and has offered us the following as a tempting preview.  She is scouring the backwaters of female aviation in order to make sure that many of the less notable, but still famous (or about to be famous) are represented.  She wants to move from country to country to ensure equal representation, and that is tough to do.  Our thanks to her, and her efforts.  She currently flies small aircraft and has a beautiful single-engine, open-cockpit type that she stunts about the islands.

Phoebe Fairgrave Omlie (1902-1975) flew Velie Monocoupe planes in the late 1920s and early 1930s; raced and set records, performing stunts and gaining fame in the aviation industry; first woman to earn a federal pilot’s license and the first to receive an aircraft mechanic’s license; performed wing-walking feats and stunt flying for the "Perils of Pauline" motion pictures.

Princess Eugenie Shakhovskaya and Princess Sophie Alexandrovna Dolgorunaya were among the first women to become military pilots in Europe during WWI.

Harriet Quimby was the first licensed woman pilot in the United States in 1911.

Hannah Reitsch (1912-1979) born in 1932, in Hirschberg, Silesia, on 29 March 1912, the daughter of an ophthalmologist, became a medical student with the idea of being a missionary doctor, but this was not to be. She began gliding and went on to become one of the first few people to cross the alps in a glider. She was the first female test pilot and helicopter pilot and flew everything the Third Reich had: from the first helicopter (the Focke-Achgelis) to the prototype of a piloted V-1, the V-1e. She went on to set more than 40 altitude and endurance records in motorless and powered aircraft in her lifetime. She is Number One Whirly Girl, and a recipient of the Nazi Iron Cross.

Whirly Girls premiere organization of international women helicopter pilots founded on April 28, 1955. Now has over 1000 pilots registered. Noted members include:

• Ann Shaw Carter, Whirly Girl #2, the first woman in the United States licensed to fly a helicopter;
• Jean Ross Howard, Whirly Girl #13, one of the original founders of the group. She learned to fly at George Washington University in a government-sponsored Civilian Pilot Training Program;
• Commander Joellen Drag Oslund, Whirly Girl #179, the first female naval helicopter pilot in April 1974;
• Sally Murphy, Whirly Girl #181, the first woman to qualify as an aviator in the Army;
• Diane Dowd, first woman helicopter instrument instructor for the Army, the first woman in the Army National Guard qualified as a helicopter pilot, and the first woman to be type-rated in a Sikorsky S-76;
• Laura Goldsberry, first U.S. Customs Department’s female pilot in 1986;
• Angelica Myles, became not just the first African American female helicopter pilot on the west coast, but the west’s first female helicopter pilot in law enforcement;
• Teresa McIntosh, qualified to fly helicopters for the Los Angeles Police Department;
• Nancy Sherlock, assigned to the NASA Johnson Space Center as a flight simulation engineer on the Shuttle Training Aircraft; in 1991 she became the first Whirly Girl astronaut.
• Doris Mullen, killed in an airplane accident.
• Major Marie Rossi, an Army helicopter pilot killed during Desert Storm shortly after being interviewed by world news.

Women Auxiliary Ferrying Service (WAFS)

Women Auxiliary Ferrying Service (WAFS) numbering no more than 28, was created in September 1942 within the Air Transport Command, under Nancy Harkness Love's leadership. WAFS were recruited from among commercially licensed women pilots with at least 500 hours flying time and a 200-horsepower rating. (actual average about 1,100 hours). Original mission was to ferry Army Air Force (AAF) trainers and light aircraft from their factories, but later they were delivering fighters, bombers and transports. Members included:

Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP)

Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) 1,074 women during WWII (out of 25,000 who applied and 1,830 who were accepted) who successfully completed the Women Airforce Service Pilot training program and earned their wings. WASP flew more than 60 million miles in all 77 types of military aircraft manufactured in this country at that time. The following gallant women earned their celestial wings:

Women in Aviation, General

Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) In 1943 women ferried almost every kind of aircraft in the British skies. The aircraft list consisted of 120 different planes. More than 100 women flew with the ATA at the height of the war, but not all of them came from Great Britain. Others came from America, Australia, Canada, South Africa, New Zealand, Poland, and Chili. Some of the many include: Gwen Alston; Amy Johnson Mollison.

Jacqueline Cochran broke the sound barrier in 1953, set speed and altitude records and lobbied for the use of women pilots in the military.

Eileen Collins was the first woman to command a space shuttle mission in 1999.

Lt Col.Martha McSally, ranked as the top female Air Force pilot, was among the first women trained by the Air Force as a fighter pilot. During a 1995-96 tour of duty in Kuwait, she became the first woman in military history to fly a combat sortie in a fighter aircraft. She also flew more than 100 combat hours in an A-10 Warthog over Iraq in the mid-1990s also serving as a flight commander and trainer of combat pilots.

Major Marie T. Rossi died at age 32 on March 1, 1991, when the CH-47 Chinook helicopter she was piloting crashed in Saudia Arabia. The unit she commanded was among the first American units to cross into enemy-held territory flying fuel and ammunition to the 101st and 82nd Airborne Divisions.

In 1974 six women earned their wings and became the first Naval aviators for the United States. The Army followed suit in 1974 and trained female helicopter pilots. In 1976, the Air Force admitted women to the pilot training program, but their flying was limited to non-combat. Military women pilots would not be flying combat missions.

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