When the United States entered World War II, the Army needed pilots to transport or "ferry" its combat-bound aircraft across the United States for overseas deployment and its trainer airplanes to flight training bases. Male pilots were in short supply, so into this vacuum stepped Nancy Love and her Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS). Initially the Army implemented both the WAFS program and Jacqueline Cochran's more ambitious plan to train women to do many of the military's flight-related jobs stateside. By 1943, General Hap Arnold decided to combine the women's programs and formed the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), with Cochran as the Director of Women Pilots. Love was named the Executive for WASP.
Nancy Love advised the Ferrying Division, which was part of the Air Transport Command, as to the best use of their civilian WASP ferry pilots. She supervised their allocation and air-training program. By example, Love won the right for women ferry pilots to transition into increasingly more complex airplanes. She checked out on twenty-three different military aircraft and became the first woman to fly several of them, including the B-17 Flying Fortress. Her World War II career ended on a high note: following a general's orders, she piloted a giant C-54 Army transport over the fabled China-Burma-India "Hump," the crucial airlift route over the Himalayas.
Young women serving today as combat pilots owe much to Love for creating the opportunity for women to serve. Now author Sarah Byrn Rickman, aviation historian, presents the first full-length biography of Nancy Love and her role in the WAFS and WASP programs. Her book will appeal to all with a love of flight.
