Fly Girls – Part 7 – The Girls who helped drop the Bomb!

The two Girls who helped drop the bomb-

It was big.

The massive propellers thrashed the thin air above Clovis, New Mexico. The drone of the four Wright engines beat against the desert in a rhythm that seemed to shake the earth.

Colonel Paul Tibbets watched as the silver plane flashed overhead, the sun streaking across it’s lines. He saw a thing of beauty that would bring Japan to its knees. In a few months, he’d fly a B-29 to Japan and into history.

The pilots at Clovis saw something different. They saw coffins flying overhead.

“It’s just too damn much airplane,” one pilot told the other. He’d flown the B-25. He’d flown the B-17. He seen the inside of a B-29. It scared him. So many controls. You needed an engineer just to help handle it.

The drone of the engines receded a little, but then stayed constant, then grew louder again. The huge bomber was circling. It was getting ready to land.

“Ten bucks says he cracks up,” one said.

The bomber was a problem. It was one of the most complex pieces of aviation hardware ever bolted together and put into the air. Some felt its production was rushed. It hadn’t seen the testing most aircraft had. There were lots of issues that needed fixing. The biggest of those was the engines. They were prone to catch fire.

If Col Tibbets heard, he ignored the comment. If this worked out, every man in the unit would be getting in fist fights to fly the machine. Of course if it didn’t, then the only way he’d get them aboard and flying it was at gunpoint.

But he had to get them aboard. All things considered, he couldn’t blame them for not wanting to fly it. The airplane even frightened him a little.

But he had a way to make the men want to fly it.

The plane finished it’s turn, and the wheels came down. It was lined up perfectly.

Come on, Col Tibbets thought. Put that beautiful girl down on the money.

It was hard to tell the moment the plane touched the runway. Normally there was a puff of smoke as the tires hit, but not today. The airplane settled down on the runway like a man settling into an easy chair. One moment it was in the air. The next it was rolling down the runway.

Engines reversed and the massive bomber slowed. The crash of the engines assaulted everyone’s ears. The bomber pulled off the runway and onto the taxiway. A man in a red vest and with pointers conducted it to where they wanted it to park.

The plane moved into the parking spot and with a final screech of the brakes, stopped. The engines thundered for a few seconds before they were shut off one by one.

“Looks like that guy knows what he’s doing,” a pilot admitted grudgingly.

“Yeah, and you me ten bucks.”

“I wonder who it is,” a third asked. “Maybe he can give us some pointers on flying this beast.”

“What’s the name on the plane?”

One of the men shielded his eyes to make it out. “Says ‘Ladybird.’ Can’t make out the nose art.”

The propellers had stopped spinning and the hatch at the bottom opened. A set of legs followed by the person in a flight suit appeared. Swiftly they were followed by a second person.

The two pilots took off their flight caps and started walking towards them.

“It can’t be,” Ten Dollar guy said.

The pilots were women and they’d just brought America one step closer to Tokyo and the end of the war.

The two women were now called WASP pilots. Jackie Cochran’s school and Nancy Love’s WAF program had been merged. They were Dora Jean Dougherty and Dorothea Johnson Moorman.

As far as the two women were concerned, this was a routine delivery of a bomber. But from Col Tibbets viewpoint, the two girls delivered a much-needed kick in the pants to the male fliers. A kick that would get them off the tarmac and into the cockpit of the B-29.

The crew of the bomber said it was one of the easiest flights they’d ever had.

It had the desired effect. The attitude of the men took on was “Anything a girl can fly, I can fly better.” Of course Dora Jean and Dorothea helped teach them to fly it better.

Someone commented that the two ladies handled the bomber like they’d been flying it for years. Nothing could be further from the truth. The historical record says the girls learned to fly the plane in four days.

I went out to learn more about these remarkable ladies.

There’s quite an extensive biography on Dora Jean Dougherty. She earned a Ph.D. in Aviation Education and taught flight. She also worked with Bell to help design the cockpits of helicopters and tested the birds they built. And she held the helicopter altitude record for years. I can’t do her justice in a just a few paragraphs so click here to learn more about her.

I’ve found very little on Dorothea Johnson Moorman. Maybe I’m just looking in the wrong places.

The B-29 would go on to become one of the storied aircraft of WW II.

And these two ladies had a lot to do with it.