One of Six ... The Leader

Nancy Harkness Love

Nancy Love acquired her first taste of flying from two barnstormers who landed in her hometown of Houghton, Michigan in 1930. After convincing her parents to let her take flying lessons at the age of 16, Nancy became the youngest woman in the United States to earn a private pilot's license. While attending Vassar College, she was known as "The Flying Freshman". She would find any excuse to sneak off campus, rent a plane, and get in an afternoon of flying. Nancy's exuberance for flying resulting in a two week expulsion from school for buzzing the campus one afternoon.

Following her sophomore year at Vassar, she decided to make aviation her career. Nancy saw great possibilities for women in this field. In 1938, while she and her husband operated their own aircraft company, American factories produced more and more airplanes to be sent to an escalating war in Europe. With the shortage of male pilots, she was convinced that ferrying (delivering airplanes from factories to air bases and points of debarkation) could provide a meaningful job for experienced women pilots.

In 1940, she approached the military and proposed the idea of women as ferry pilots. The Army Air Corps liked the concept, but thought the idea of women ferrying military planes was too controversial. Two years later, at the age of 28, Nancy's determination and purpose carried her on to achieve what other women pilots had failed to do: persuade the Air Transport Command to let her organize a women's pilot group to serve their country during war-time. In September of 1942, Nancy was appointed Director of the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) at New Castle Army Air Base in Wilmington, Delaware. During her time as a WAF, she flew nearly every military aircraft used during World War II. She was one of the first pilots, male or female, to fly the P-51 Mustang and was also the first woman to fly the B-17 Flying Fortress.

Nancy held the allegiance of all "her girls". Always known to be a lady, she was a strong woman who, when necessary, could dish it out as well as take it. Her no-nonsense way of handling business and superb flying skill gained her the respect of the men and women with whom she worked. Nancy disliked what she called "flying a desk" and found every opportunity to get in a plane and fly. She was a pilot's pilot, who knew her stuff from top to bottom. She proved what a competent woman pilot could do when given the chance.