WASPS Timeline (1937-1979)

1937

July -- Amelia Earhart disappears over the Pacific.

1938

September 23 -- Jackie Cochran wins first place in the Transcontinental Bendix Race.

1939

June -- The Civilian Pilot Training Program (CPTP) is established by the U.S. government. The program provided pilot training across the country and allowed for one woman to be trained for every ten men.

September 1 -- Germany invades Poland.

September 3 -- France and Great Britain declare war on Germany.

1940

September 28 -- Jackie Cochran writes to Eleanor Roosevelt suggesting the establishment of a women's flying division of the Army Air Forces.

1941

June -- Jackie Cochran becomes the first woman to ferry a bomber across the Atlantic.

June -- Women are banned from participating in the Civilian Pilot Training Program.

December 7 -- Japanese attacks the U.S. fleet at Pearl Harbor.

1942

March -- Jackie Cochran takes 25 American women pilots to Britain to fly with the British Air Transport Auxiliary.

September -- Following a proposal submitted by pilot Nancy Harkness Love to the Ferry Command of the Army Air Forces, the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron, or WAFS, is established. Twenty-five of America's top women pilots will begin ferrying aircraft throughout the U.S.

September 15 -- Jackie Cochran establishes the Women's Flying Training Detachment (WFTD) under chief of the Army Air Forces, General Hap Arnold.

November 17 -- The first class of 28 recruits from the Women's Flying Training Detachment reports to the Houston, Texas, municipal airport.

November -- The WAFS fly their first mission, taking Piper Cubs from Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, to Mitchell Field, New York.