In the 1930's Amelia Earhart was making aviation history, proving women could do things that men could do. Nancy Harkness was inspired to become another female pilot. Nancy traveled to Europe as a child and witnessed Charles Lindbergh’s historic landing that completed his successful trans-Atlantic solo flight. When she was sixteen, Nancy met a pair of barnstorming pilots and took her first airplane ride. That is when she fell in love with flying.
Vassar Miscellany News, Volume XVI, Number 25, 20 February 1932 -- FRESHMAN DOES STUNT FLYING OVER PO'KEEPSIE |
...she was awarded the Air Medal for her ‘Operational leadership in the successful training and assignment of over 300 qualified women fliers in the flying of advanced military aircraft’. |
Harkness started college in 1931 at Vassar. She earned a limited commercial license by the end of her freshman year. Her flying activities earned national attention and she became known as “The Flying Freshman.”
She spent her adult life in the aviation industry. Her early jobs prepared her for her important contribution to history as the Leader of the Women's Auxiliary Ferry Squadron (WAFS) and Executive Director for all ferrying operations of the Women's Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) during World War II.
Nancy Love Receives Air Medal |