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Aviators |
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Rosella Marie Bjornson |
Born July 13, 1947 Lethbridge, Alberta. As a child she
dreamed of being a pilot. At 17 she took her first lesson and completed her
Private Pilot's License in just two months! She accumulated flying hours
while she did her studies at the University of Calgary and established the
first group of Girl Guide Air Rangers in Calgary. In 1973 she was hired as a First Officer with the
Canadian Airlines Transair. She was the 1st woman to be hired as a First
officer in North America on scheduled jet equipment and the first woman to
be hired by a commercial air line in Canada. She was also the first woman to
be a member of the Canadian Air Line Pilots Association. During her second pregnancy in 1984 regulations were
changed to allow a pilot who is pregnant to fly. In 1990 she became
the first woman to be promoted to Captain with a major Canadian air carrier.
Throughout her career, she has made valuable and ongoing contributions to
Canadian youth by participating in school career day. In 1990 she was
featured in a poster campaign by the Alberta Government, Dream/Dare/Do", to
encourage young people to set goals and strive to achieve them. She is a
member of the Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame.
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Judy Camerson |
The
1st woman pilot hired by Air Canada.
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Maryse Carmichael |
A
captain with the Canadian Air Force, Maryse had the job of VIP pilot flying
the Prime Minister or the Governor General of Canada. In 2000 she became the
1st female pilot to fly with the Canadian Force's national aerobatic
team, the Snowbirds.
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Elizabeth
"Betsy" Flaherty |
Born 1881(?)
. Died October 18, 1968 Vancouver, British Columbia. She worked as a buyer
for the girl’s clothing department of Spencer's department store. She flew
as a passenger on Trans-Canada Airlines' first cross-Canada flight.
December. 16, 1931, when she was 50, she received her private pilot license
making her the oldest female pilot in Canada.
In 1936, she was the oldest
charter member of The Flying Seven Canadian Women Pilots. November 1936 the
club was Canada’s first all women dawn to dusk flying patrol. They took off
at 6:16 a.m. from the Vancouver airport. In 1940 the Flying Seven dropped
pamphlets over Vancouver urging support for the Canadian war effort. During
WWII, the club members were the first aerial woman’s training centre where
they trained women in parachute packing, fabric work and other aspects of
airplane care. Some of the trainees joined Boeing's Vancouver plant or the
Royal Air Force's women's division.
Sources: Vancouver Hall of Fame on line accessed December 2012. : Daring
Lady Flyers by Joyce Spring; No Place for a Lady by Shirley
Render: the British Columbia Aviation Hall of Fame on line accessed January
2013.
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Violet 'Vi' Milstead Warren |
Born October 17, 1919 Toronto, Ontario. Died June 27, 2014
Colborne, Ontario. When a teen growing up she wanted to be a surgeon
but she had to leave school to help in her mother's wool shop. She saved all
her earnings to pay for flying lessons and while learning to fly her
instructor used Vi as the subject of a film Let's Learn to Fly. Vi
earned her Private pilot license and when she wool shop closed Vi began her
own business to pay for commercial flying lessons. With the happening of
World War ll Vi became one of four Canadian women and the longest serving
pilot to work in the British Air Transport Auxiliary during World War ll
delivering 47 different types of airplanes from factories to military bases.
It was here that she met her future husband fellow pilot, Arnold Warren
(d2000). The young couple settled in Sudbury
where Vi became the 1st Canadian woman bush pilot. After a
couple of years in Windsor, Ontario and two years in Indonesia the
couple returned to Canada where Vi worked as a Librarian at Orenda and the
Ontario Water Commission. Vi also volunteered with the Rotary Club, Meals on
Wheels and at the local public school. In 1995 she became a
member of the Bush Pilots Hall of Fame. A time for Courage, a 1996
documentary featured her exploits. In 2004 she was inducted as a member of
the Order of Canada. In 2009 Canada Post issued a commemorate postage stamp
in her honour. In 2012 she received the Queen Elizabeth ll Diamond Jubilee
Medal. She is also the holder of the Amelia Earhart Medal, the Paul Harris
Medal and the Rusty Blakey Memorial Award. In 2010 she became a member of
the Canadian Aviation Hall of Fame. The couple established the Vi Milstead
and Arnold Warren Flight Training Scholarship fund in Colborne Ontario.
(2019)
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Marion Alice Orr |
née Powell. Born June 25, 1918, Toronto, Ontario. Died April 4,
1995. She was fascinated with planes and flying since as a child the family
swing was her 'flying machine". Earning $10.00 a week at her job, she
ate very little and saved each week to pay for her first flying lesson
April 22, 1939. January 5, 1940 she received her private pilot's license and
by December 1941 she had earned her commercial license. With the help of
then husband 'Deke' Orr she received her instructors rating at Trenton ,
Ontario Royal Canadian Air Force base on September 25, 1942. The next month,
October 1942 she became the 1st Canadian woman to operate a flying club
when she was hired as manager and Chief Flying Instructor at the St
Catherines Flying Club. During world War ll the Royal Canadian Air Force did
not consider women as pilots and she ended up flying for the Air Transport
Auxiliary of the British Royal Air Force. After the War she returned to
Canada working as a flight instructor. In 1950 she became the first woman in
Canada to own and operate a flying club. During her career as a flight
instructor she would teach some 5,000 pilots. In the 1960's she became the
first Canadian woman to be a licensed helicopter pilot. She was awarded the
Ninety Nine Inc Medallion in 1976 in recognition of her outstanding
achievements in the field of aviation. In 1981 she was named a member of the
Canadian Aviation Hall of Fame.
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Moretta Fenton Beall
'Molly' Reilly |
Born February 25, 1922 Lindsay, Ontario. Died November
24, 1980. In 1939. Molly tried to sign up with the Royal Canadian Air
Force, but they were not accepting women until 1941 when the Women’s’
Division was founded. She
was one of the 1st recruits and she worked in the photographic area
to get to fly. She
finally earned her pilots license after the war and in 1953 she went to
England to earn a senior commercial license. In 1959 she married John
Hardisty 'Jack' Reilly (1921-2003) and that same year,
1959, she became a full time charter pilot
where she was the 1st woman in Canada be a captain and the 1st woman
to fly to the Arctic professionally.
She became the 1st woman to be a corporate pilot in Canada
when she was Chief Pilot for Canadian Utilities Company in 1965. .She
was inducted as a
member of the Canadian Aviation Hall of Fame in 1994. (2017)
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Ellanne Roberge |
She became
interested in flying September 13, 1921 when an aeroplane, “The Polar Bear”
arrived in Prince Rupert. The plane was being carried by train for a special
flight from northern Canada back to Mexico. Unfortunately the plane was
damaged in a windstorm while in Prince Rupert and the crafty Ellanne played
hooky from school and obtained a souvenir of fabric torn from the wings of
the aeroplane. She was hooked on flying! Ellanne too flight training in
Montreal and started flying in 1929 earning private pilot license no.
678.In 1936 she was a charter member of the famous
Flying Seven Club. In November 1936
the women were Canada’s 1st all woman dawn to dusk flying patrol.
In 1940
the Flying Seven dropped pamphlets over Vancouver urging support for the
Canadian war effort. During the war the women ran the 1st woman’s aerial
training centre training women in parachute packing
fabric work and other aspects of airplane care. Some of the trainees joined
Boeing's Vancouver plant or the Royal Air Force's women's division.
Sources: Vancouver Hall of Fame on line accessed December 2012. : Daring
Lady Flyers by Joyce Spring; No Place for a Lady by Shirley
Render: the British Columbia Aviation Hall of Fame on line accessed January
2013.
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Margaret Elspeth Russell-Burnett |
Born 1920? Montreal, Quebec. Died Matane, Quebec. Elspeth
moved with her family when she was a child to settle in Matane, Quebec. She
studied at McGill University, Montreal. She learned to fly and after 150
solo hours to her credit she was the 1st of five
Canadian woman to Join the British Air Transport Auxiliary. The 'ATA
Girls' as women in the ATA became known were called to fly and deliver
airplanes from the factory to the air fighter pilots. Women were not allowed
to become fighter pilots but they learned to fly many of the 99 different
planes to the fighting male pilots. Elspeth lied
about her age to join the ATA in 1943 as she was not old enough to meet the
21 year old requirement. The ATA girls flew often at low altitude
in all types of weather using such ground markers as railways to gain their
bearings while flying with only minimal instruments. In 1945 she married ATA
pilot Gerard 'Gerry' Burnett and the couple settled in Matane, Quebec to
raise their son. They founded together the Matane Air Services with Elspeth
doing often more than her share of the flying. She was the the only
commercials woman air pilot in Quebec during her career. The business was
sold in 1965. In 2002 Elspeth was inducted posthumously into the Quebec
Aviation Hall of Fame.
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Alberta Margaret Rutledge |
née Fane. Born
April 3, 1914
Edmonton, Alberta. Died December 2,
2004. As a child she always had her eyes scanning for aeroplanes. She was a
female aviation pioneer who earned her pilots license in 1933 and her
commercial pilot license in 1935. She organized the women pilots as the
Vancouver Seven. At first the group was not allowed to participate in air
shows but these determined pioneer women were soon showing audiences their
skills. While working as a dispatcher for Bridge River and Caribou Airways
she was
often required to co-pilot flights making her the only woman
commercial pilot in British Columbia. When World War ll broke out the women attempted to join the Air
Force as pilots or instructors but were only offered positions as cooks!
Instead the women used their talents to raise money for training equipment
and established their own flying school. In later years Margaret moved into
administration at Canadian Pacific Airways where she worked for over 20
years. In 1956 she married Keith Rutledge. Margaret Fane
Rutledge was inducted the British Columbia Aviation Hall of Fame.
Source: Margaret Fane Rutledge…by Tom Hawthorn. Globe and Mail
January 5, 2005.
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Eileen Vollick |
Born
1908 Wiarton Ontario. Fascinated by aviation from childhood this daring
young woman enrolled in a Hamilton, Ontario, flying school On March 31 1928
she passed the federal aviation test and become the
1st Canadian woman to
earn a private pilot's certificate. Eileen soon moved to New Your, U.S.A. to
make her life but she had opened the doors of aviation to Canadian women who
would embrace flying careers as licensed pilots.
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