Fly Girls delves into some of the lesser known aspects of the "Golden Age of Flying" from the late 1920s until Amelia Earhart disappeared on her round-the-world flight a decade later. Specifically author Keith O'Brien revisits the history of women pilots during this era, not only Earhart, but many others whose names have long since faded from the national conscience: Ruth Nichols and Louise Thaden, Ruth Elder and Florence Klingensmith, with plenty of ink devoted as well to that most famous flier, Miss Earhart.
O'Brien does justice to each of these women, and Fly Girls works as a min-biography for a half dozen of the earliest women pilots. More crucially, O'Brien examines the prejudices these early pilots faced, including the rather preposterous regulation against flying immediately before, during, or after menstruation. Unfair, no doubt, but not terrifying. No, the terrifying risks were borne by all pilots, male and female alike, and again and again O'Brien documents the horrifying results of early planes, rudimentary airfields, and nascent navigation.
Frequently these crashes occurred at the National Air Races, an annual exhibition of the finest pilots and fastest planes, and attendance at which often outdrew the World Series. (I lost track of the fatalities somewhere in the middle years.)
Part history of flight, part women's history, Fly Girls is ultimately a look at an entire era - the zeitgeist, the mores, the thrills of victory and the agonies of defeat. In that sense, it serves as a reminder of the sacrifices early pioneers in any discipline must make.
Five stars.
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