WASP – Women of World War II

WAFS and WASP Pilot Gertrude Meserve

Before joining WAFS, Gertrude Meserve was an instructor pilot who taught hundreds of students at Harvard and MIT. The Women’s

WASP pilot Iris Cummings standing in front of aircraft on an airfield, 1944. Photo size: 780 × 1072 Photo source: U.S.

Dorothy Olsen joined the WASP in 1943, and after training was assigned to the Sixth Ferrying Group in Long Beach,

Pictured here in 1943, Nancy Harkness Love founded the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) which used women to ferry planes

Three WASP pilots returning from a mission, dressed in cold weather flight gear. Photo size: 1800 × 1385 Photo source: U.S.

Group of WASPs at the Romulus Army Airfield in Michigan, 1944. Photo size: 1200 × 1039 Photo source: U.S. Air Force

Jacqueline “Jackie” Cochran was a leading aviatrix who promoted an independent Air Force and was the director of women’s flying

Pioneer American aviator Jacqueline “Jackie” Cochran in the cockpit of a Curtiss P-40 Warhawk fighter plane. Cochran was head of

WAFS ferry pilots lined up on the airfield during WWII. WAFS (Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron), along with the WFTD (Women’s

Mrs. Nancy Harkness Love, founder of the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS). The WAFS was created in September 1942 within