Best Female Pilot

Her sister Marjorie also was a pilot,Katherine caught TB(I think) during WW1 and this curtailed her flying career,her younger sister Marjorie had a longer career.But Katherine sure had a cute smile !!

Very interesting. Bit of a stunner by the standards of her time as well by the look of it.

I have always admired Katherine Stinson. Became a pilot in 1912, when it was certainly not the thing for a young lady to do. Flew at may airshows in the US, China and Japan (where the concept of a female pilot was revolutionary). She later taught her brother Eddie to fly, and this lead to the formation of the Stinson Aircraft Company.

http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/stinson_bio.html

Hi Mike
Dont know if you have seen these….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyfpjimShCc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cgm2XgYpxM4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SIXSCJ1aB4

Thanks for those mate, I’ve just had chance to watch them. Very interesting.

Found this Lady’s name whilst on an unrelated search
Melitta Grafin von Stauffenberg.. test pilot throughout WW2.
Was Jewish/Jewish extraction and her family were locked up/removed after the Hitler bomb attempt(yes…same family von Stauffenberg!!) but she continued test flying almost to the end.She was shot down in an unarmed trainer in april 1945 and died from her injuries.
Difficult to imagine operating under that sort of strain:eek:

cheers baz

Re: Jacqueline Cochrane

I read a book about her years ago and she certainly set records with her exploits. She did a lot of racing in many types of aircraft…including a civil P-35 (forerunner of the P-47) and even having a go in a two-seat F-104 in the 60s. Historically she should be remembered as the person who helped bring the WASPs (Womens Air Service Pilots…volunteer women ferry pilots) into being.

Trouble with so many of the prw-war pilots, it’s hard to tell where history ends and 1930’s style “press agentry” begins.

Yes i think she may have become a ‘legend in her own lunch time ‘ her dealings with ATA/Wasps were fairly controversial and possibly self serving,really depends on which books one reads.

Re: Jacqueline Cochrane

I read a book about her years ago and she certainly set records with her exploits. She did a lot of racing in many types of aircraft…including a civil P-35 (forerunner of the P-47) and even having a go in a two-seat F-104 in the 60s. Historically she should be remembered as the person who helped bring the WASPs (Womens Air Service Pilots…volunteer women ferry pilots) into being.

Trouble with so many of the prw-war pilots, it’s hard to tell where history ends and 1930’s style “press agentry” begins.

I am surprised that no-one has mentioned Jacqueline Auriol
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacqueline_Auriol
or Jacqueline Cochrane
http://members.lycos.co.uk/derekhorne/cochran.html
who both seem to me to have considerably more claim to the title than Svetlana, talented though she clearly is.

Thanks for that useful hint. I never even thought of that.

You and me both, Mike. Only way around it is to email the link to yourself, and watch at home. Easy way to clog up your inbox though.

I haven’t as it happens and I’m not likely to today as I’m at work and my work computer won’t let me look at anything on youtube. The nuber of things I’ve missed because someone’s posted a youtube link and I’ve forgotten to go back to it when I’m at a computer where I can get to the link.

Hi Mike
Dont know if you have seen these….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MyfpjimShCc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cgm2XgYpxM4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SIXSCJ1aB4

Certainly, when she was interviewed post war she made no appologies for her loyalty.I really feel she thought that she did what she did for her country and if you didn’t like you could go hang yourself. I guess some would be ungracious enough to class her as a fanatic purely because she was German but if she’d been British they’d have called her patriotic. I think I’m mature enough to realise that us Brits don’t have a monopoly on patriotism so I’d say she was fervently patriotic and there’s no shame in that.

I agree with you about her choice of loyalties but how much was down to the instinct of self preservation? I suppose we’ll never know the answer to that question but I’d guess quite a lot. Can’t blame her for knowing which side her bread was buttered can we?

In her autobio ‘the sky my kingdom’ she does not seem to worry about self preservation and the last flight into berlin was voluntary and way above the call of duty.
Even now I am not sure if she was as fanatical as popularly portrayed or has been somewhat misrepresented over the years.She certainly was a gifted and intuitive pilot I think.

cheers baz

I agree with you about her choice of loyalties but how much was down to the instinct of self preservation? I suppose we’ll never know the answer to that question but I’d guess quite a lot. Can’t blame her for knowing which side her bread was buttered can we?

As you will see by my previous posts I’m not swayed by the glamour factor. Hanna Reitsch had a face like a horse’s backside but I still rate her as one of the greatest pilots ever – male or female.

Definitely!! shame she had rotten taste in men to be loyal to.She was a very brave and determined person.

As you will see by my previous posts I’m not swayed by the glamour factor. Hanna Reitsch had a face like a horse’s backside but I still rate her as one of the greatest pilots ever – male or female.

Some damn fine fliers (and fine human beings, for that matter) mentioned here, but I still think that in terms of all round flying ability Hanna Reitsch can’t be beaten. Can’t help wondering if some of us here are paying too much attention to the glamour factor. 🙂 🙂 🙂

Ann Welch ex ATA and made an enormous contribution to gliding in this country. I have her signed autobiography “Happy To Fly”.

As I said earlier a brave woman. I’m even willing to forgive her political orientation because of her courage, she flew things I’d run a mile to get away from even at my age.