?? Wasps flew Hurricanes and Spits??

While at the Wright Memorial earlier this week, I picked up a NASA
pamphlet entitled _Celebrating a Century of Flight_.

On page 13 there's a picture of Jackie Cochran with a caption quoting
her as saying, about the WASPS, "We landed planes like the Hurricane
and the Spitfire in fields where I wouldn't land my Lodestar today if
I could avoid it."

I find that hard to believe. Anyone know if the WASPS flew Huricanes
and Spits? If so, what were the circumstances?

vince norris

"vincent p. norris" wrote in message
...
While at the Wright Memorial earlier this week, I picked up a NASA
pamphlet entitled _Celebrating a Century of Flight_.

On page 13 there's a picture of Jackie Cochran with a caption quoting
her as saying, about the WASPS, "We landed planes like the Hurricane
and the Spitfire in fields where I wouldn't land my Lodestar today if
I could avoid it."

I find that hard to believe. Anyone know if the WASPS flew Huricanes
and Spits? If so, what were the circumstances?

vince norris

I would say most likely.....A pilot I worked with flew with the ATA during
WW2 and she ferried everything from fighters to bombers from Nth America to
Britain...an incredible performance, very often they they had little
experience on type and learned the hard way !!

BMC

Subject: ?? Wasps flew Hurricanes and Spits??
From: vincent p. norris
Date: 12/19/03 4:33 PM Pacific Standard Time
Message-id:

While at the Wright Memorial earlier this week, I picked up a NASA
pamphlet entitled _Celebrating a Century of Flight_.

On page 13 there's a picture of Jackie Cochran with a caption quoting
her as saying, about the WASPS, "We landed planes like the Hurricane
and the Spitfire in fields where I wouldn't land my Lodestar today if
I could avoid it."

I find that hard to believe. Anyone know if the WASPS flew Huricanes
and Spits? If so, what were the circumstances?

vince norris


Thye sure did and in most cases qanded them on grass fields. Not a runway in
sight. And what with Brit weather these grass fields were often muddy and quite
dangerous. But these Wasps piled up huge hours and many had more hours in the
air than most combat pilots. They were good. Real good.

Regards,

Arthur Kramer
344th BG 494th BS
England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer

I find that hard to believe. Anyone know if the WASPS flew Huricanes
and Spits? If so, what were the circumstances?

Women served as delivery pilots for the RAF. It's probably that some
of the WASP did that duty as well.

all the best -- Dan Ford
email:

see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com

"Cub Driver"
I find that hard to believe. Anyone know if the WASPS flew Huricanes
and Spits? If so, what were the circumstances?

There was a TV program on this very topic commemorating their service in
the ATA and the WASPS. These talented women flew nearly everything on
inventory from heavy bombers, trainers, to the latest fighters of that time.
In the beginning ground crews where often shocked to see a wisp of a woman
climb out of a heavy bomber when it was delivered to an active base. They
often waited for the expected male pilot to climb out of the aircraft but
there was none. According to this TV program a memorial has been set up in
England commemorating the personnel of the ATA that lost their lives doing
this important work.

(ArtKramr) wrote:
Subject: ?? Wasps flew Hurricanes and Spits??
From: vincent p. norris
Date: 12/19/03 4:33 PM Pacific Standard Time
Message-id:

While at the Wright Memorial earlier this week,
I picked up a NASA
pamphlet entitled _Celebrating a Century of
Flight_.

On page 13 there's a picture of Jackie Cochran
with a caption quoting
her as saying, about the WASPS, "We landed
planes like the Hurricane
and the Spitfire in fields where I wouldn't
land my Lodestar today if
I could avoid it."

I find that hard to believe. Anyone know if
the WASPS flew Huricanes
and Spits? If so, what were the circumstances?

vince norris


Thye sure did and in most cases qanded them
on grass fields. Not a runway in
sight. And what with Brit weather these grass
fields were often muddy and quite
dangerous. But these Wasps piled up huge hours
and many had more hours in the
air than most combat pilots. They were good.
Real good.

Regards,

Arthur Kramer
344th BG 494th BS
England, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany
Visit my WW II B-26 website at:
http://www.coastcomp.com/artkramer

If society then had allowed it, how would they have done in combat? A number
of them have in recent years asked themselves that question, and they had
no easy answers. Some would have done well, some not, just like the guys.
And the Luftwaffe would have been just as appalled as it was when a Luftwaffe
Me-109 driver shot down a Yak-1 and landed to get a piece of the plane to
confirm the kill: he found a female pilot's body in the cockpit. First Luftwaffe
indication of Soviet women in air combat.

Posted via www.My-Newsgroups.com - web to news gateway for usenet access!

Not quite sure what your question is.

Let me rephrase it, Emmanuel:

1. Were not all WASPS stationed in the US?

2. Did they ferry airplanes to England? If so, did they they then
fly RAF aircraft around Britain, or did they promptly return to the
US?

I'm not asking about ATA, or the British use of British women to ferry
airplanes, which I think is what Art is talking about.

If you are wondering
why American WASPS would be flying British fighters,
then the answer must be that before Jackie Cochrane joined
the WAFS and leader became the commander of the WASP,
she spent some time in the British ATA. For about a year
and a half, a group of American women volunteers (the
organisation began before Pearl Harbour) flew for the
ATA. Some stayed with the ATA until the end of the war.

OK, I understand you to be saying "No" to my original question.

As to whether these women flew high-performance fighters,
certainly, and bombers (much heavier on the controls) as
well.

Yes, I know the WASPS did that, but was it not limited to
American-made fighters and bombers?

vince norris

1. Were not all WASPS stationed in the US?

Strictly speaking, the word is WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots).

2. Did they ferry airplanes to England? If so, did they they then
fly RAF aircraft around Britain, or did they promptly return to the
US?

I think Emmannuel was referring to women who first worked for the RAF,
then transferred to the WASP after October 1942. There is a novel,
later TV mini-series, about such a woman, and I assume her character
was based on reality.

I'm not asking about ATA, or the British use of British women to ferry
airplanes, which I think is what Art is talking about.

all the best -- Dan Ford
email:

see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com

If society then had allowed it, how would they have done in combat? A number
of them have in recent years asked themselves that question, and they had
no easy answers.

Of course being an excellent pilot (as the WASP no doubt were) is no
guarantee that you will be a good combat pilot. I have no grasp of
what it takes to fly a plane in combat. I think from my army training
that I could manage to work my way through infantry combat, but I'm
not so sure about the sort of thing that was going on in the air in
WWII. And 1940s women of course were carrying extra baggage in their
upbringing as helpers, mates, mothers etc etc.

Still there is no question that some of them would have made the
passage into combat flying. Essentially we are all made out of the
same raw material. Women were fighting as partisans in Yugoslavia in
the 1940s, and working with the resistance movements elsewhere; women
dropped as spies into German-occupied Europe; and women flew as combat
fighter pilots with the Red Air Force. Civilization is fairly thin on
us. I suspect that if the WASP had been required to fight, the
survivors would have acquitted themselves as well as the Russian women
pilots.


all the best -- Dan Ford
email:

see the Warbird's Forum at www.warbirdforum.com
and the Piper Cub Forum at www.pipercubforum.com

On Sat, 20 Dec 2003 02:58:42 GMT, "Brian Colwell" wrote:


"vincent p. norris" wrote in message
.. .
While at the Wright Memorial earlier this week, I picked up a NASA
pamphlet entitled _Celebrating a Century of Flight_.

On page 13 there's a picture of Jackie Cochran with a caption quoting
her as saying, about the WASPS, "We landed planes like the Hurricane
and the Spitfire in fields where I wouldn't land my Lodestar today if
I could avoid it."

I find that hard to believe. Anyone know if the WASPS flew Huricanes
and Spits? If so, what were the circumstances?

vince norris

I would say most likely.....A pilot I worked with flew with the ATA during
WW2 and she ferried everything from fighters to bombers from Nth America to
Britain...an incredible performance, very often they they had little
experience on type and learned the hard way !!

BMC

Of course there were no Spits or Hurricanes built in the US.

Al Minyard