WOMEN PILOTS

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4812, 19 July 1939, Page 7

WOMEN PILOTS

NO COMMERCIAL CAREERS IN AVIATION. Despite almost unanimous agreement that women are equal to men as fliers delegates to the Women’s National Aeronautics Association conventions at Salt Lake City opined there was no financial future for. the fair sex in aviation, says the Christian Science Monitor. “Flying for women is purely a sports proposition —there is no financial field,” declared Mrs. Grace E. Prescott, San Diego, who won the Ruth Chatterton Derby for precision flying from Los Angeles to Cleveland, Ohio, in the 1935 national air races.

“Commercial flying is a man’s job,” said Mrs. Carlos L. Reavis, Denver, past national president of the W.N.A.A.

“It’s like being a bus driver, a street-car motorman, or a locomotive engineer—purely a man’s task. “Of course,” added Mrs. Prescott, “in a national emergency, such as a war, you could count on us to operate ambulance planes, fly the mail, and transport passengers and equipment.” Estimating that there are less than 500 licensed women fliers in the country, the San Diego aviatrix expressed the belief that with more experience and training any of them could handle the large transport planes. To bolster the claim that women could take their places along with men in the air, the winning of the Bendix transcontinental speed flight by Jacqueline Cochran and Louise Thaden was pointed out. This was done in competition with the best men speed fliers in the United States.