Aviation Movies and Women Pilots

By:                   Norm Goyer

I have loved aviation movies ever since my mother took me to see “Dawn Patrol” when I was grade school. I can still visualize the marquis of the Calvin Theatre in Northampton, Massachusetts. It had full-size cutouts of two airplanes, one on its nose and the other flying over, with the Allied pilot waving to his victim in the crashed Fokker. The other night I was surfing “Direct TV” and stumbled upon, you guessed it, the 1938 version of “Dawn Patrol.” It wasn’t as good as my embellished memory remembered, but it was certainly worth viewing.  The problem was, this movie was produced in 1938 and this is 2009, and movie making, with its computer generated lifelike images, has advanced by light years. It appeared that the producers had two authentic Nieuports complete with rotary engines. At least the sound track certainly had a real rotary sound. The rest of the sky was filled with Travel Air or Vought biplane fighters, straight from King Kong and the Empire State building. The unique Vought rudder outline did look a little like WWI, but the complex landing gear gave them away. The German airplanes were a little tacky, but what do you expect when you stick a Fokker-shaped cowling on a Standard biplane trainer. The dogfight sequences were 50% fake shots or close-ups of spinning-props and machine guns spitting death. It was hokey, but I enjoyed it for what it was, and that is the trick.

“Dam Busters” featured the British Lancaster
bomber, dropping skip-bombs on Germany.

The night before, I had watched “Dam Busters”, a British World War II drama staring three Lancaster four-engine bombers along with their brave flight crews. The director and editor managed to fill the sky with Lancasters, using only those three of the twin-tail bombers. There were no enemy aircraft in this one, just lots of ack-ack fire and skipping bombs headed for three dams in Germany. I enjoyed this one because of the great shots of real Lancasters, which were a welcome switch from the usual B-17s, which hogged the movie spotlight for years.

I will only watch movies which are uncut and commercial-free. Turner Classic Movies and IFC (Independent Film Channel) are two of my favorites. During the month of June TCM has several great aviation movies on their schedule.

“Dawn Patrol” featured several Nieuport 28s, like this one with famed American auto racer Eddi(e) Rickenbacker.

June 2nd, “Test Pilot” and “A Guy Named Joe”, June 7^th, “Captain of the Clouds” June 13^th, “Spirit of St Louis”, June 14, “Only Angels Have Wings”, June 20th, “30 Seconds Over Tokyo”, June 30^th, “Strategic Air Command”. Check your listings, then program your recorder and enjoy some great airplane movies.

“Dawn Patrol”, 1938 version, showed aircraft involved in dog fighting. Many posed studio shots were used, along with actual aerial sequences.

It has been one year since I started writing the weekly “Under the Radar” piece. I decided to inventory the articles to see if I had missed any important subjects, and indeed I had.  I had neglected the thousands of women in aviation. Personally, I would not have been able to have been the editor of so many magazines, if I hadn’t had some very competent help from women who were managing editors and contributors. Wife, Tina, has been proofing my articles for many years. Competent partners like Kara Dodge Pietila, of Custom Planes and Private Pilot, Jessica Ambats, now Editor of Plane & Pilot magazine and one of the best aviation historic and classic aircraft writers of all time, “Sparky” Barnes Sargent, of Washington, Oklahoma. These super ladies are all pilots, photographers and super knowledgeable of all things airplane. Son Robert awarded the “Flying Magazine Writer of the Year” to Sparky at a recent AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.  Now that was a double hit, Sparky and Robert, two of my 15-minutes-of-fame in one package.

In 2006, Sparky Barnes Sargent was selected by “Flying” magazine and the EAA as the first female recipient of the “Bax Seat Trophy”, in recognition of her work which “communicates the excitement and romance of grassroots aviation.” The annual award is named in honor of “Flying” magazine columnist, Gordon Baxter, and was presented by Robert Goyer, Senior Editor at Flying

Our female readers should know that Sparky recently wrote a book about nine outstanding lady pilots; it is an interesting and well written tribute. “A Hunger for the Sky” is a collection of women pilot biographies, authored by Sparky Barnes Sargent and published by DGA Enterprises, Inc. The book features the personal stories of nine women who are irresistibly drawn to the sky. They include a professional skywriter, airline first officer, DC-3 captain, and owners/operators of a gliderport and an aerobatic school. The first chapter is devoted to Evelyn Bryan Johnson, who will be 100 years old in November 2009. Evelyn loves flying because, “It’s a whole new world up there.” When she was 5 years old, her family moved from Kentucky to Etowah, Tennessee, where Evelyn attended grammar and high school.. Evelyn took her first flying lesson at age 34 in 1944. She soon became a flight instructor, and has since been lauded with numerous aviation awards. She has been inducted into six aviation Halls of Fame, including the National Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton, Ohio, and the Tennessee Aviation Hall of Fame in Sevierville. Nicknamed “Mama Bird” by one of her students, she has soloed more than 3,000 student pilots and has conducted more than 9,000 flight tests. Back when she was just 93, Guinness World Records recognized her for logging more flight hours than any other woman pilot—57,360.4 at that time—and she was also the world’s oldest-known active flight instructor. Today, at 99 1/2, Evelyn is manager at Moore-Murrell Airport in Morristown, Tennessee—a position she has filled since May 23, 1953. Her total flight hours are 57,635.4. For more information, visit http://home.windstream.net/av8terz/book.html

Pictured left to right are: Catherine Cavagnaro, Elaine Huf, Evelyn Bryan Johnson, Sarah Kelly, Sparky Barnes Sargent, (holding a copy of the book she authored, A Hunger for the Sky), Sandy Mercandetti, Jeanie Collins, and Sheila Mabbitt

Thank you, ladies, for your contributions to our world of aviation, you have made it a far more interesting and better place.

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