In Honolulu, Hawaii, December 7, 1941, began as a perfect day for an early flying lesson. The flight instructor, a civilian born in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1919, had the student practicing landings. They were circling back for another descent when a fast-moving fighter plane came right at them. The instructor grabbed the controls and managed to avoid a collision. The sight of the “rising sun” insignia on the wings of the plane they’d dodged, and the plumes of black smoke rising above Pearl Harbor, told the story: The Japanese were attacking.

Miss Cornelia Fort immediately made a beeline back to the airport, dodging bullets in the air, then on the ground, as she and her student left the plane and ran for the hanger. Cornelia’s life, like all other American’s, changed that day.

How it All Began

At the age of five, Cornelia saw an aviation demonstration by a Barnstorming pilot and fell in love with flying. Her older brothers must have shown some interest, too, because her father, who feared flying, made them promise never to fly. He obviously never considered she’d want to try it. Not that she did so immediately. She had to grow up first.

She didn’t take to being a debutante, as was expected of young, wealthy women in Nashville society. “Tomboy” fit her better. Her education path took her to college in New York, but she left after two years. She returned home to Nashville and a year later finally rediscovered her first love—flying. She kept her flying lessons secret because of her father’s failing health, but in 1940, at age 21, she soloed. Not long afterward, she got her pilot’s license. She received her commercial pilot license in early 1941, followed, a month later, by an instructor license.

Cornelia began teaching flying in Fort Collins, Colorado, but wanting to contribute more directly to the upcoming war effort, she left Colorado for a position at Andrews Flying Service in Honolulu, Hawaii, where her students would be mostly military men. She took to the Hawaiian skies for the first time on September 29, 1941. During the 69 days between that first flight and December 7, she logged 300 total hours of flying time.

After the Bombing

With the bombing of Pearl Harbor, civilian flying in Hawaii ended. Cornelia returned home to Nashville and joined the Civil Air Patrol, then the Army Air Forces’ Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS), a civilian group created to shuttle military aircraft from factories to bases.

On February 11, 1943, Cornelia was sent to Long Beach, CA. Her new assignment—deliver BT-13’s, planes almost the size of fighters. Just over a month after arriving in Long Beach, Cornelia and a group of pilots, both men and women, left in their BT-13’s for Dallas’ Love Field. The routine flight turned tragic when, trying to fly in formation—something strictly forbidden during delivery flights—Cornelia’s left wing struck another pilot’s landing gear and broke off. She died in the resulting crash, becoming the first woman pilot to die in active service.

Her Contribution

Cornelia Fort lived a short, but eventful life. She loved flying, but she also loved her country. Though much of society at the time believed young women shouldn’t fly—either because it “wasn’t proper” or because their gender made them incapable—she didn’t let that stop her. She served her country the best way she could. And though not as well-known as Amelia Earhart, Cornelia Fort played a major role in paving the way for future women pilots.