99's women pilot organization pin (what is is for?)

[pfrost]

Found this today. The top part is the symbol for the 99's.  The 99's was an organization founded in 1929 by the first 99 women pilots in the US (more less, as about 250 women actually held flying licenses at the time).  This group of early Aviatrices included Amelia Earhart, Jackie Cochran, and Pancho Barnes.  By the early 1930's the 99's were involved in promoting women's air races and trying to get more female pilots in the air.  The 99 organization is still active and has expanded into multiple "chapters" and includes about 5000 active members (according to the WIkipedia link).

 

The 99's used two overlapping golden 9's with a propeller in the center as their logo (see top of this pin).

 

This morning I found this small pin (~1.5 inches in diameter) of the 4 Southwest states and Hawaii with a small prop plane.  If I had to guess this was an item commemorating an air race or navigation contest from the 1950's or so.  But I would love to be corrected if anyone knows actually what this is and what it was intended to commemorate.

 

Thanks

Patrick

[pfrost]

The 99's were the forerunners to the WASPs.  I found this pin with the 99's logo on the top.  I suspect it is an air race or navigation contest from the 1950's.  I am hoping someone has a more concrete idea of what it is for?

 

[P-59A]

Hey Pfrost! The 99's are a little more than you let on to. They still exist and this is a link to thier site. Thisis thier history link.   https://www.bing.com/ck/a?!&&p=e36af3d29d4a2a1dJmltdHM9MTY4MTYwMzIwMCZpZ3VpZD0xZjJkZDU2Mi1jYmVmLTZmYjktMWQ4My1kYWY5Y2ExNDZlMDUmaW5zaWQ9NTQ1Mg&ptn=3&hsh=3&fclid=1f2dd562-cbef-6fb9-1d83-daf9ca146e05&psq=99's+women+in+aviation&u=a1aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cubmluZXR5LW5pbmVzLm9yZy9vdXItaGlzdG9yeS5odG0&ntb=1

[dmar836]

My wife is a 99. She the treasurer of the NE Kansas chapter.

[cutiger83]

I am thinking this may be a Chapter pin.  That looks like the 4 states, California, Nevada, Utah and Arizona. 

 

IMO...The 99's were not really the forerunners to the WASPS.  They were formed in 1929 by a group of 99 women pilots to help promote women in aviation. As P-59A said, they are still in existence today. 

 

https://www.ninety-nines.org/

 

...Kat

 

[pfrost]

Thanks.  A chapter pin seems plausible. I know the history of the 99’s. I was just keeping it straight forward for the ID section!  Thanks everyone 

[Noelle]

It’s a southwest section membership pin. 🙂 Those five states are the southwest section of the 99’s. The SW section has sold various pins over the years,

 

I’m an active member of the northwest section, which is Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, which makes sense, but then also Alaska, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming.  Probably the only time the Dakotas will ever be called the northwest United States.  If we had a section pin, no one would take it seriously!

[pfrost]

Thank you, that makes perfect sense. It never occurred to me that it was a chapter pin. I had been thinking a souvineer pin for an air show or air race.

I appreciate the info.

Patrick

[pfrost]

Thank you everyone for your kind and brilliant ID'ing skills.  With that bit of information, I did a bit more searching and found this. Similar design.

AGain, thank you all

[Noelle]

4 hours ago, pfrost said:

Thank you, that makes perfect sense. It never occurred to me that it was a chapter pin. I had been thinking a souvineer pin for an air show or air race.

I appreciate the info.

Patrick

Section.  Chapters are smaller units within a section. 🙂

[Noelle]

4 hours ago, pfrost said:

Thank you, that makes perfect sense. It never occurred to me that it was a chapter pin. I had been thinking a souvineer pin for an air show or air race.

I appreciate the info.

Patrick

The main airshow from that area is Palms to Pines, from SoCal to Oregon.  My chapter was the terminus last year, and I think again this year.

[Noelle]

23 hours ago, cutiger83 said:

IMO...The 99's were not really the forerunners to the WASPS.  They were formed in 1929 by a group of 99 women pilots to help promote women in aviation. As P-59A said, they are still in existence today. 

 

Correct.  There were, I think, 117 licensed women pilots at the time, and invitations were sent to them all, and 99 responded, and so they decided to call themselves the 99s.  Come 1943, and there were thousands of women pilots.  At the end of last year, there were only a TOTAL of 30, 244 women pilots in the US, from private to ATP. Kind of a legit source on this: https://www.faa.gov/data_research/aviation_data_statistics/civil_airmen_statistics/2022 There are 33,984 men pilots who are ONLY licensed to fly rotorcrafts or gliders.  That’s one hell of an imbalance.

 

To apply for the WASP, a woman had to have her license.  More than 25,000 women applied.  Why do we only have 30,244 now?   (Well, maybe a tad bit more since we’re a few months into 2023.)   In 2018, there were fewer licensed women pilot than there were in 1943/1944.  Pretty messed up.

 

Anyway, I’ll shut up now.  

[Scott C.]

My mom's 99 pin, circa 1949, is shown below atop her pilot's license (she was never in the military).  Back then, the cross-country air races the organization hosted were called 'Powder Puff Derby", and my mom and a pilot girlfriend of hers flew the 1950 derby in a Cessna 140 from Oakland, CA, to Wilmington, DE. They came in 5th place - her trophy (sponsored by Cessna) is show below.

 

My mom and her girlfriend met the press at every stop-over airfield, and were expected to exit the plane in skirts and heels for interviews. So the girls wore slip-on sneakers and shorts when they flew, and as they taxied in, donned custom button-side skirts and heels - the press photo shows the two of them. They were sponsored by Van Camps, and their plane had decals of a giant can of Chicken of the Sea tuna plastered on both sides. 

 

For the record, my sister is also a pilot and member of the 99s - Southwest Chapter. 

[cutiger83]

1 hour ago, Scott C. said:

My mom's 99 pin, circa 1949, is shown below atop her pilot's license (she was never in the military).  Back then, the cross-country air races the organization hosted were called 'Powder Puff Derby", and my mom and a pilot girlfriend of hers flew the 1950 derby in a Cessna 140 from Oakland, CA, to Wilmington, DE. They came in 5th place - her trophy (sponsored by Cessna) is show below.

 

My mom and her girlfriend met the press at every stop-over airfield, and were expected to exit the plane in skirts and heels for interviews. So the girls wore slip-on sneakers and shorts when they flew, and as they taxied in, donned custom button-side skirts and heels - the press photo shows the two of them. They were sponsored by Van Camps, and their plane had decals of a giant can of Chicken of the Sea tuna plastered on both sides. 

 

For the record, my sister is also a pilot and member of the 99s - Southwest Chapter. 

Very cool about your Mom and sister! 

 

...Kat

[Noelle]

3 hours ago, Scott C. said:

My mom's 99 pin, circa 1949, is shown below atop her pilot's license (she was never in the military).  Back then, the cross-country air races the organization hosted were called 'Powder Puff Derby", and my mom and a pilot girlfriend of hers flew the 1950 derby in a Cessna 140 from Oakland, CA, to Wilmington, DE. They came in 5th place - her trophy (sponsored by Cessna) is show below.

 

My mom and her girlfriend met the press at every stop-over airfield, and were expected to exit the plane in skirts and heels for interviews. So the girls wore slip-on sneakers and shorts when they flew, and as they taxied in, donned custom button-side skirts and heels - the press photo shows the two of them. They were sponsored by Van Camps, and their plane had decals of a giant can of Chicken of the Sea tuna plastered on both sides. 

 

For the record, my sister is also a pilot and member of the 99s - Southwest Chapter. 

 

The last one was years before I was born, when my parents were still younger teenagers, and races now obviously don’t care, and in fact, it’s seen as strange to wear skirts and/or heels!  Granted, flying in heels stinks!  I made that mistake ONCE.  After that, flat shoes and the heels get tossed in my bag. 😂 Though I do actually often fly in skirts, whether yoke or stick (there’s a way to tuck it).  Really absurd that this was EXPECTED, with HEELS, or at least the appearance of it.  Then again, Cochran expected WAPS to freshen their powder and lipstick despite a war going on.

 

Do you know how long that flight was?  Did she have any fun stories about the race? 😀

[Scott C.]

I believe the distance was ~2300 nautical miles, but I don't recall what she said about how many days. She did mention the joshing and ribbing she and the other pilots took from menfolk along the way. Regardless of the war-time service the WASPs demonstrated to the country just five years earlier, prejudice against women pilots (or women of any profession seen as a man's) was still a thing in 1950.

 

But my mom took it in stride at the time and had the support of my dad, who was also a private pilot. After the Derby, mom continued to build her flying chops, and in 1958, decided she wanted to fly helicopters too. However shortly after her solo, she discovered she was pregnant (with me), and her pediatrician told her to take a break from training as the vibration could be bad for the fetus (!). The picture below is a press photo of her soloing in the Kaman-240, the first woman on record to ever fly one of those, and it received quite the coverage in San Diego press at the time.  In fact her picture was in the San Diego Aerospace Museum's Women in Aviation exhibit for years (not sure if it's still there or not).

 

Mom quit flying after I was born due to other family issues, but she never gave up her passion for aviation - passing it on to my sister an me who also became pilots. 

[Scott C.]

Edit: After digging around a bit a bit more, I came across some of my mom's flight records from the Derby, and need to make some corrections to the details I providedd above. The 1950 Powder Puff Derby was the fourth annual event hosted by the 99s and 33 teams competed.  The race was from San Diego, CA to Greenville, SC, and lasted 6 days (11-16 June).  My mom and her girlfriend flew a Cessna 120, not a Cessna 140.

 

My apologies for my earlier mistakes on that subject.

[dmar836]

The Powder Puff Derby is still going on and is called the Air Race Classic now. Course changes every year.

 

Dave