obitoftheday:Obit of the Day: Above It All Pan Am made an interesting hire in 1948. Their newest s
obitoftheday: Obit of the Day: Above It All Pan Am made an interesting hire in 1948. Their newest stewardess (they were not yet “flight attendants”) was Betty Haas. Ms. Haas was the first in her position to have ever logged over 1,000 hours in a cockpit. She had more experience flying planes than some of the pilots in the airline, but the idea of a woman flying a commercial plane was unthinkable. Ms. Haas, who became Mrs. Haas Pfister in the 1950s, began flying when she was 19, sneaking her first flight after a local air show in Vermont. When World War II erupted, Haas Pfister was qualified to join the Air Force’s female branch, Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs. Women replaced men who were needed in combat, flying planes to various location in the U.S. and internationally and sometimes dragging aerial targets across the sky for artillery practice. While at Pan Am, Haas Pfister rebuilt her own plane, “Galloping Gertie,” and became a fixture at air shows and races, winning two All Women’s International Air Races. In 1994 she was named an Elder Statesman of Aviation by the National Aeronautical Association, and in 2010 she and other surviving WASPs were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. Mrs. Haas Pfister died at the age of 90. (Image of Betty Haas Pfister cleaning “Galloping Gertie” is courtesy of the Boston Globe.) -- source link