This week is National Women in Aviation Week! There are plenty of female pilots gracing our screens (or pages) in Star Wars, so there's no better time to appreciate them- and of course, to celebrate some of the real life women who've jumped in the cockpit over the years too!
We start this week with Star Wars' most famous female pilot, Hera Syndulla! Hera's piloting feats are numerous, including many victories with the Rebellion and outflying Darth Vader himself, trapping him between two Imperial tractor beams. But one of her biggest accomplishments includes the test flight of the B-Wing starfighter. The Mon Calamari scientist Quarrie invented the B-Wing prototype on the planet Shantipole, notorious for having gravity that makes the planet almost impossible to fly through- and many pilots have died trying. Hera, though, not only makes it to Quarrie's base on Shantipole, but performs an impressive test flight for the B-Wing starfighter, convincing Quarrie to come work with the Rebellion so they can use the fighters to get an edge on the Imperial fleet.
That brings us to our first real life pilot, Ann Baumgartner. Ann Baumgartner servied as a member of the Women Airforce Service Pilots and like Hera, was a test pilot herself! Baumgartner flew a variety of aircraft, and was the first woman to ever fly a jet aircraft. Not only was she a member of the flight test division, but she would test aeromedical equipment for the Women Airforce Service Pilots program, and she even got to know Orville Wright (as in the Wright Brothers) during her time as a test pilot at the Wright Field in Ohio.
After leaving her test pilot days behind her, Baumgartner would become a flight instructor to teach future generations of pilots, and she became a pretty prolific writer! She's written many newspaper and magazine articles as well as her own book, A WASP Among Eagles.
As Women in Aviation Week continues, we will also continue to highlight a few of not just our favorite Star Wars pilots, but some of the women in the air in the real world as well!
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