Introducing
Prezi AI.
Your new presentation assistant.
Refine, enhance, and tailor your content, source relevant images, and edit visuals quicker than ever before.
Trending searches
Loading…
Nancy Harkness Love
3
Transcript
Nancy Harkness Love
By: Natalie Eggimann
The Beginning
- Nancy was born on Febuary 14, 1914 in Houghton, Michigan.
- She was the daughter of a wealthy physician.
- She first started to develop her love for flying when she was 12
- She took her first flying lesson when she was 16 and earned her pilots license within a month.
- Her parents were Dr. Robert Harkness and Alice Chadbourne
Pre War:
- When Nancy was 22 she married Robert M. Love, who was an Air Corps Reserve major.
- Together they built a successful Boston-based aviation company, Inter City Aviation
- Nancy was a pilot for the company
- She flew for the Bureau of Air Commerce in 1937 and 1938, and flew as a test pilot, performing safety tests on various aircraft modifications and innovations.
- In one of the projects, she served as a test pilot on the new three-wheeled landing gear,
- Soon became the standard on most planes. In another, she helped mark water towers with town names as a navigational aid for pilots.
World War II
- Nancy was inolved World War 2
- In 1942 Nancy went with Robert to Washington D.C when he was called to active duty in the Munitions Building
- On March 11 Nancy took a civil service position in Baltimore with the Operations Office of the Ferrying Command's Northeast Sector, Domestic Divison
- The Domestic Division, was commanded by William H. Tunner,
- A few months later, she piloted her own airplane on her daily commute from her and Roberts home in Washington, D. C.
- Her piloting skills caught the attention of Tunner, who was scouring the country for skilled pilots to deliver aircraft from factories to fields.
- Nancy convinced Tunner that using experienced women pilots in the existing pilot force was a good idea, so she wrote up a proposal for the women's ferrying division but the proposal was denied
- He then appointed her to his staff as Executive of Women's Pilots. Months later she recruited 30 experienced female pilots to join the WAFS and Nancy became their commander in September 1942
- In June 1943, Nancy was commanding four different squadrons of WAFS (womens airfore serice) at Love Field, Texas, New Castle, Delaware Romulus, Michigan, and Long Beach, California.
- On August 5, 1943, the WAFS merged with the WFTD and became a single unit and Nancy was the executive for all WASP ferrying operations.
- Under her command, female pilots flew almost every type military aircraft in the Army Air Forces' inventory and Nancy was certified in 19 military aircrafts and was the first woman to be certified to fly the latest military aircrafts
- In 1944, WASP was disbanded but she continued to work on reports detailing the work of the Air Transport Command.
Post War
- Once the war ended Nancy and Robert had 3 daughters
- She became an aviation industry leader
- In 1948, after the creation of the United States Air Force, she was given the rank of lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve.
- On October 22, 1976 Nancy sadly passed away of cancer at the age of 62
- She did not live to see the WASPs being accorded military recognition three years later.
Her achievements
- Nancy was put the Michigan Women's Hall of Fame in 1997
- In 2005 she was put in the National Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton, Ohio
- A statue was also dedicated to Nancy at the New Castle County Airport in Delawar
- The Air Force awarded her and her husband an Air Medal for their great efforts and achivements
Choose a template
Presentations from around the world
Learn more about creating dynamic, engaging presentations with Prezi