From the early to the middle of the 20th century, the name ‘Pursuit’, or the letter ‘P’, was primarily used by the U.S. Army Air Service – later called the U.S. Army Air Forces’ (USAAF) -aircraft naming system to refer to fighter aircraft. The term ‘Pursuit’ comes from the French term, “Avion de Chasse,” which translates to ‘hunt airplane’.
After the Second World War, when the U.S. Air Force (USAF) became a separate branch of the military in 1947, the USAF changed the ‘P’ designation to ‘F’ for ‘Fighter ‘aircraft.
Of the 1,102 WAFS/WASP who flew military aircraft for the U.S. Army Air Forces between 1942 and 1944, a quarter of them were attached to the Air Transport Command. (ATC) as ferry pilots.
Of that quarter percentile, about 130 women flew pursuit aircraft during the Second World War for the ATC.
At the time, when fighters were labeled as ‘Pursuits’, nearly every woman who were assigned the duty of ferrying pursuits had nine months to one year of ferrying training airplanes before moving on to pursuit flying. Prior to flying pursuit aircraft, women pilots were sent to pursuit school to learn how to fly what were considered the ‘hottest’ of the USAAF fighter aircraft of the day.
The first school to train WASP ferry pilots in pursuits officially opened in December 1943; the Palm Springs Pursuit School. In April 1944 the school was moved to Brownsville, Texas where roughly 100 WASP graduated learning to fly in four pursuit (classified with a ‘P’) aircraft – the P-40, P-47, P-51, and P-39.
After completing pursuit training, WASP were stationed under the Air Transport Command to five ferrying bases; the 2nd Ferrying Group (FG) in Wilmington, DE; the 3rd FG in Romulus, MI, the 5th FG Dallas, TX; the 6th FG in Long Beach, CA, and the 21st FG in Palm Springs, CA. As pursuit pilots, WASP assigned to these ferrying groups, transported, or ferried, aircraft from aircraft manufacturing plants to U.S. ports of embarkation for shipment overseas, and to aircraft modification facilities, and between U.S. Army Air Bases throughout the country.
The major aircraft manufacturers in the United States during the war were Bell, Curtiss, Republic Aviation, and North American.
Some WASP did not attend pursuit school and transitioned to pursuits at their base assignment or learned to fly at aircraft manufacturing factories. Bell aircraft factory, Buffalo, NY allowed transition check-outs in the P-63 to women who had previous flight time in the Bell P-39 Aircobra. At the Lockheed factory in Long Beach, CA some of the women went on Temporary Duty (TDY) to be checked out in the P-38 Lightening. Training in the P-38 was only given to Class IV pilots; those who were proficient in medium bomber and twin-engine, and who qualified in pursuits.
According to the Army Air Forces Statistical Digest, World War II originally published in December 1945 by the Office of Statistical Control, HQ Army Air Forces – of the 99,487 combat aircraft produced for the USAAF – 47,050 were pursuit aircraft. https://web.archive.org/web/20190608125511/https://apps.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a542518.pdf.
As a whole, with the nearly 300,000 U.S. military aircraft produced in the States (as the arsenal of Democracy) between 1940 – 1945 for the USAAF, the US Navy & Marine Corps, for other US service, for the British Commonwealth, the Soviet Union, and other nations – the sheer number of the over 47,000 pursuit aircraft manufactured specifically for the USAAF alone, reflects the urgency of personnel needed- in this case WASP pursuit pilots in 1944- who qualified to ferry the fastest and most complicated single-engine aircraft of the time…aircraft that played not only a critical role in establishing air superiority and victory in the air war, but that were a vital component in achieving the Allied victory and the end of the Second World War.
Written by: Julia Lauria-Blum
Photos courtesy of: Cradle of Aviation Museum
About Julia Lauria-Blum:
Julia Lauria-Blum earned a degree in the Visual Arts at SUNY New Paltz. An early interest in women aviation pioneers led her to research the Women Airforce Service Pilots of WWII. In 2001 she curated the permanent WASP exhibit at the American Airpower Museum (AAM) in Farmingdale, NY, and later curated ‘Women Who Brought the War Home, Women War Correspondents, WWII’ at the AAM. She is the former curatorial assistant & collections registrar at the Cradle of Aviation Museum on Long Island and is currently editor-in-chief for Metropolitan Airport News.
Julia is the proud mother of two daughters and a rescued Boxer. Her many interests include swimming, painting, traveling, aviation history, cooking, and storytelling.