Sharon M. Himsl - Shells, Tales and Sails

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

V is for Polly Vacher - Pioneer Women in Aviation: A-Z Challenge

Polly Vacher (1944-)

In 1999, Polly Vacher was busy planning her solo flight around the world. If successful the trip would raise money for Flying Scholarships for the Disabled in the UK and the U.S. She loved flying and wanted those with disabilities to also have the opportunity to fly. She called on members of the British Womens' Pilots Association to help.

The women formed a fundraising committee to organize special events for potential sponsors. The largest event, complete with a flying display, champagne gathering, dancing and dinner, brought in £65,000 from one sponsor alone. Some offered to pay for fuel, while others paid for charts and maps. In return, Polly would offer publicity for their support.

Polly Vacher was born in south Devon, UK in 1944. As a young child, she often daydreamed about flying. She even tried "growing wings" once. At 19, while a student in London, she was offered a ride in a glider and found the experience "magical." Life went on and she worked briefly as a physiotherapist, married, taught music for twenty years, and raised three sons. She was 45 before going up in the air again. This time is was skydiving, which she did to raise money for a charity, but she was thoroughly hooked afterwards. In the end she would log 245 skydives.

It was only a matter of time before piloting her first airplane in 1994. At 50, her children raised, Polly took lessons with her husband Peter in a Piper Dakota while living in Australia. Both earned their pilot's licenses and logged 84 hours flight time before circumventing the Australian continent. Back in England, Polly obtained her instrument rating (Peter was more interested in airplane maintenance at this point). Eager to test her skills, Polly flew solo across the North Atlantic to the U.S. (and back again) in their Piper Dakota in 1997. While in the states, she and Peter (he'd flown commercial) toured the U.S. and Canada together.

Polly and husband Peter

Flying the Piper PA-28 Cherokee Dakota

Itching to try something new, Polly began contemplating a solo world flight. Even with the British Womens' Pilots Association's help, it would take two years to raise the funds needed for such an undertaking. They called the trip the Wings Around the World Challenge.

In 2001, she lifted off the runway in her Piper PA-28 Cherokee Dakota, which became the smallest aircraft flown solo by a woman around the world via Australia. She visited 27 countries en route. One of her fondest memories was being received by Queen Noor in Jordan and meeting Prince Hamzah and Prince Faisal. It was scary flying over the Pacific though, where a cyclone forced her to land and wait out the storm, and on the final leg from Hawaii to California she experienced a grueling 16-hour flight. The engine had even quit as she was switching over fuel tanks. In the end Polly flew 29,000 miles and raised over $200,000 toward Flying Scholarships for the Disabled.

Supporting Flying Scholarships for the Disabled

Polly flew again around the world in 2003 for the same charity, this time over the North Pole, Antarctica and all seven continents. She became the first woman to fly over the polar regions solo in a single-engine aircraft. The 35,000-mile journey covered 30 countries and was called Voyage to the Ice. Some of the preparations for the flight were intense, including the probability of a polar bear attack, should she land and have to survive in sub-zero temperatures.

Commenting, Polly said, "I have got a gun on board and have been trained to use it. It is not something I want to use, but if I meet a polar bear and it's a choice between me or him, I will use it. Apparently they don't like it if you fire into the air above them so I'll do that first."

Landing at the North Pole

In every long distance flight Polly took flight preparations seriously. She learned how to navigate by the sun, in case her GPS failed. She believed in using a checklist for every flight regardless the distance, and always paid attention to the weather. If in doubt, "Don't go" was her motto. Asked in 2015 what it took to be a good pilot, she added,

"Never be complacent. There are old pilots and there are bold pilots but there are no old bold pilots! Pay attention to detail as flying requires you to be very precise."


(2007) Did it! Wings Around Britain Challenge (Her last challenge before retiring. Polly visited 221 airfields in Great Britain, flying 19,000 miles. Sixty-six disabled passengers traveled on legs of the trip with her.

A Book about her North Pole adventure
(A portion of profits go for flying scholarships)

Website - Flying Scholarships: http://www.fsfdp.org.uk/news/news.html
(Flying scholarship donations apply to UK or U.S.)

Source:
http://www.inspiredpilot.com/podcast/polly-vacher-mbe-wings-around-the-world/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1429312/Polly-the-pole-to-pole-pilot-aims-at-world-record.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polly_Vacher; http://www.avweb.com/news/profiles/182917-1.; http://www.ninety-nines.org/polly-vacher.htm

Monday, April 25, 2016

U is for Unknown Pilots - The Night Witches: Pioneer Women in Aviation A-Z Challenge

The 588th Night Bomber Regiment: The Night Witches

They flew at night. A soft swooshing noise in the air that sounded like a witch's broomstick signaled their arrival. The Nazis feared them, called them Nachthexen -- the Night Witches, and any pilot able to shoot one down was honored with Nazi Germany's coveted Iron Cross.

The Night Witches were Russia's all female 588th Night Bomber Regiment of the Soviet Air Force during World War II. They were the world's first female fighter pilots.

In 1941, Nadia Popova experienced the death of her brother and witnessed women and children fleeing in the streets during the German invasion. Her home became a Gestapo station. Leningrad was soon under siege and three million of her people were taken as prisoners. Now the German troops were 19 miles away from Moscow and the Soviet Air Force was powerless. Marina Raskova, Russia's record-breaking female aviator, began recruiting women pilots in 1942 to fly bombing missions. Nadia didn't hesitate to volunteer. She had been a member of a flying club since the age of 15 and was a flight instructor. She was 21.

Three Bomber Regiments were formed: the 586th (Yak-1 fighters), the 587th (twin engine dive bombers), and the 588th (night bombers--the Night Witches). Only the 588th would remain an all female regiment, which meant they were the pilots, navigators, and maintenance and ground crews. The new recruits ranged from age 17 to 26. Their hair was cut short and they were issued ill-fitting uniforms meant for the men. The men insulted them, calling them "a bunch of girlies" instead of soldiers, which they very much were. One young woman later recalled, "We didn't recognize ourselves in the mirror---we saw boys there." So they painted flowers on the sides of their planes and used navigation pencils to color their lips.


Nadia Popova, Deputy Commander. In 2010, she said: ““I sometimes stare into the blackness and close my eyes. I can still imagine myself as a young girl, up there in my little bomber. I ask myself, ‘Nadia, how did you do it?’”

Nadia Popova later said it was a miracle any of them survived. Their planes were the slowest in the Air Force and they came back "riddled in bullets." They flew in Polikarpov Po2 biplanes, planes more suited for crop dusting and training, than bombing. Made with plywood and canvas, tracer bullets (the kind that exploded) could easily ignite a plane. But the Po2 had some advantages. It could take off and land just about anywhere, and being slow meant it could make tighter turns, below the stall speed of a German fighter (which had to make wider turns and circle back). The Po2 could travel low to the ground too, unlike the German fighters. Some German pilots were said to have given up out of frustration. The Night Witches thought smart. Another tactic was to fly in close to the target, cut the engine, glide in real slow (that broom stick swooshing noise), drop their bombs (six per plane), and then restart the engine.

The Polikarpov Po2 biplane

Nevertheless, danger was always at their door. Because they flew low, parachutes were not carried on board. Cockpits were wide open, which meant freezing conditions, frostbite, and zero protection from stray bullets. They had no radar and could only rely on maps and compasses. Missions were long and tedious---two pilots to a plane, eight flight missions a night (as many as 18), which meant traveling back and forth to rearm with bombs. Commenting on the German's claim that the Soviets must have given the women pills, because of their night ("cat") vision, she said:

"This was nonsense, of course. What we did have were

clever, educated, very talented girls."

Each pilot in the 588th Night Bomber Regiment flew over 800 missions by the end of the war, flying thousands of missions overall, as many as 18 missions a night for four years. In the end they had helped chased the Germans back to Berlin, but 30 would die in combat. Twenty-three would live to tell their stories and receive the Hero of the Soviet Union title, their nation's highest honor.

Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Witches; http://www.seizethesky.com/nwitches/nitewtch.html
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2013/07/night-witches-the-female-fighter-pilots-of-world-war-ii/277779/;
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/flight-of-the-night-witches-wwii-s-all-female-fighting-force
https://02varvara.wordpress.com/2013/08/30/nadezhda-popova-world-war-ii-night-witch-dies-at-91/

Saturday, April 23, 2016

T is for E. Lillian Todd - Pioneer Women in Aviation: A-Z Challenge


E. (Emma) Lillian Todd 1865-1937

E. Lillian Todd remembered that she loved discovering how things worked as a child. She would disassemble toys, use scissors as a tool, tinker with weather vanes, typewriters, telescopes, and even her walking dolls. As she grew older, she learned to build airship models and other aeronautic toys with motors.

Lillian was born in Washington D.C. in 1865. From a census taken in 1870, it appears her father had either died or left the home. Lillian was living with her mother and sister alone, but later mentioned she inherited her "mechanical and inventive talent" from a grandfather.

Lillian's education is somewhat vague, but she was bright enough to learn how to type and land a job at the Patent Office (NY). Another job opened in the governor's office in Pennsylvania, where she was the first woman to receive an appointment in that state's executive department. Returning to New York in 1890, she studied law at New York University and was a member of the school's first Woman's Law Class. Still a tinkerer at heart, she managed to invent a typewriter copy-holder, sharing a patent with a colleague in 1896. During the Spanish-American War, she also worked for the Director-General of the Women's National War Relief Association as a secretary in 1898. She was 33.

After 1903, Lillian returned to her ongoing fascination with "mechanical and aeronautical toys." Not since the model-making days of her childhood had she ever seen more than a model, but witnessing live airships flying over London and at the 1904 Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis gave her ideas. When she saw a sketch of an airplane in a 1906 Parisian newspaper, Lillian knew it was time to build a new model.

1904 Louisiana Purchase World's Fair

In December 1906, Lillian proudly displayed her first airplane design as part of the Aero Club of America exhibit at New York's Grand Central Palace. Lillian was the first woman in the world to build and design a heavier-than-air aircraft. Lillian drew national attention as Miss E. Lillian Todd. Her display received the most visitors according to newspapers. Evening World (Dec. 4, 1906) reported that Andrew Carnegie (a wealthy philanthropist) had spent hours discussing the model with "Miss Todd." Whether he had considered becoming her patron is unclear. Indeed, money would be a factor building a full scale biplane. Olivia Russell Sage, a wealthy widow who had inherited millions and also admired the exhibit, became Lillian's patron, donating $7000 for the project.

1906. Miss E. Lillian Todd (2nd on left) and Aero Club of America exhibit

In fall of 1908 Lillian hired two aeronautical engineers, Charles and Adolph Wittemann to begin construction. The plane would be built according to her design in Mineola, NY (inside a large shed). Meanwhile, Lillian pursued another interest, the mentoring and education of boys in the field of aviation. She formed the first Junior Aero Club of America in 1908. The club met in her living room, amidst all her inventions and models, where the group learned about flight and how to make models themselves. Clubs spread elsewhere and model making became quite the rage for awhile. The club also led to the formation of the Junior Wireless Club, which was a precursor to the Radio Club of America.

"In Miss Todd's Living Room"

November 8, 1910 was the big day. Lillian's biplane had been rebuilt several times and finding the right engine was a fiasco, but the "Todd biplane" was finally ready. A crowd showed up at the Garden City Aviation Field to watch Didier Masson, a French pilot, fly Lillian's machine. The plane performed well. Masson flew for 20 feet, turned the plane around, returned and landed to everyone shouts of praise.


The top wing was modeled after wings of an albatross. Lillian spent hours studying this bird at the museum. The frame was made of spruce, covered in bleached muslin and army duck, and held together with piano wire. Plane was 36 feet long.


Lillian sitting in her plane. She had invented, patented, and installed a device to control equilibrium.

Lillian had planned to fly the biplane herself and wanted to travel around the United States, but the City of New York had denied her application for a permit to fly the previous year (Sept. 2009). Lillian was the first woman to apply for a pilot's license in the world.

Interesting, the New York Times then reported two months later (Nov. 2009) that: "She intends to operate the machine herself as soon as her hands, which have given out, due to overstrained muscles and nerves, will allow of her managing the steering gear."

Another newspaper several months later (Daily Journal and Tribune, Knoxville, TN, Jul 10, 1910) reported Lillian had signed up for several long-distance flights and that her mechanics were working on three designs. It appears that Lillian fully intended to fly the Todd biplane on her own, but something happened. Perhaps the City of New York intervened.

No one knows for sure if Lillian ever flew her biplane. It's not likely she did. In 1911, she accepted a position with her benefactor Olivia Sage, and in 1912 arranged to have the biplane donated to the state of New York (the first person to do so). The Junior Aero Club thrived without her for many years to come and Lillian eventually settled in California in 1936. No one knows if she continued her experiments in aviation.

Other Patents filed:
--cabinet with folding table
--cannon fired at noon by sun power
--sun dial
--aeolian harp device played by the wind