Free Lecture: "WASPs - Women at War"

Nov 4, 2021
1 min read

Thursday, November 18th at 1:00pm at Champaign Aviation Museum

Presenter Bill Albers will share the incredible history of the Women Pilots who served during WWII. During the War, the Army Air Force (AAF) faced a serious shortage of pilots. Men pilots were needed to fly combat overseas, but there was still flying to be done within the U.S. In the autumn of 1942, the AAF turned to women pilots for help. After months of learning to fly “the Army way,” 1,074 women pilots graduated from the rigorous Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) training program, the same training the AAF gave to its male cadets, and they became the first women in history to fly American Military aircraft.