When military leaders agreed and approved the creation of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), about 25,000 American women applied to be an auxiliary part of the home-front army. A fraction of the applicants — 1,820 in total —were accepted into the program, and 1,074 graduated. The WASP flew 60 million miles in all types of military aircraft, including fighters and B-17 and B-29 bombers, and paved the way for today’s fully vested female military pilots. These women ferried aircraft, cargo and personnel; tested aircraft; and towed targets throughout the 48 states, filling in gaps left by male pilots who had been sent to war. 

Here, Lt. Robert Williams, a maintenance officer, briefs Lorena Daily, a Women Airforce Service Pilot (WASP) before she departs with a Beechcraft C-45 assigned to the Royal Air Force (probably for multiengine training). Daily had learned to fly from famed barnstormer “Tex” Rankin. She joined the WASP in 1943 and ferried a range of aircraft across the U.S., including the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress.