Women with Wings: Women Pilots of World War II

Women with Wings: Women Pilots of World War II — page 5
had approximately 1 000 flying hours in the B 29 and he knew it could be flown safely He just needed to figure out how to prove it to other pilots Then Tibbets had an idea According to Tibbets he heard they were having trouble at the ſairbase in Clovis New Mexico trying to get college football heroes to fly the B 29 Didn't take me long to figure it out What would you do I said train two women to fly it At that point Tibbets recruited Dougherty and Johnson to train on the B 29 As WASPs Dougherty and Johnson were licensed pilots who flew US military airplanes during World War II When Tibbets approached them in 1944 they were both stationed at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida They flew planes that towed targets for aerial shooting practice Despite their training neither WASP had flown a four engine plane before In fact Dougherty who was five feet five inches tall Our heroes back then weren't 165 cm wasn't even movie stars and rock stars sure she was big enough to Our heroes were the people who were pushing back the handle such a large aircraft frontiers in the sky people who But Dougherty was excited had made headlines gone faster gone farther to learn We realized why Dora Dougherty WASP they had us fly it said Dougherty showing how