Friday 6 March 2015

Review: 'Women of the Wind' by Wanda Langley

Women of the Wind: Early Women Aviators by Wanda Langley, 2006, Morgan Reynolds Publishing, $26.95, hardbound, 160 pages. Cover: good. Category/Genre: Reference/History. Where we got it: borrowed it. Where you can get it: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books-A-Million.


Between the historic first flights of Orville and Wilbur Wright and the breaking of the sound barrier by Chuck Yeager, there were many pilots willing to risk their lives flying the rickety, open-cockpit planes of the time. Some of those pilots were women; this book reveals the stories of nine of those women, some of whom set more than one record, some of whom died in flight, and all of whom serve as an inspiration, not only to women and young girls, but to the men and young boys who are interested in aviation.

Naturally, Amelia Earhart is in this book; but here you'll also find Harriet Quimby, the first woman to receive her pilot's license in the U.S.; Bessie Coleman, the first African American woman to fly a plane; Ruth Nichols, who used aviation to help people; and others.

Black-and-white photographs accompany the text, and each aviator gets her own timeline. 


If you like this one, try: Almost Astronauts, by Tanya Lee Stone.


Find Wanda Langley's books on Goodreads and PaperBack Swap; there's also a biography on Encyclopedia.com.

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