100 years ago Bessie Coleman became the first African American woman to earn her pilot’s license. You might remember Bessie from a previous episode of the pod (last season’s Chicago Flyer) – she inspired many of her contemporaries, including those who formed the Challenger Air Pilots Association. But Bessie’s tremendous determination and perseverance is beyond worthy of another episode. In part because she was a woman, and especially a woman of color, Bessie had to travel all the way to Europe to get her flight training. Today on AirSpace, we're looking back on Bessie's experiences in France and Germany in the 1920s and exploring just how far she went to earn her historic license (and inspire generations of pilots along the way).

AirSpace is made possible by the generous support of Olay.

Leaving for Paris

We see the connections to aviation and space in literally everything. From our favorite movies and the songs in our playlists to the latest news of space exploration and your commercial flight home for the holidays – aerospace is literally everywhere you look. Twice a month our hosts riff on some of the coolest stories of aviation and space history, news, and culture. We promise, whether you’re an AVGeek, wannabe Space Camper, or none of the above, you’ll find not only a connection to your life but you’ll learn something interesting in the process.

History

Society & Culture

Georgia "Tiny" Broadwick was 15 years old when she first jumped out of a hot air balloon with a parachute in 1908. Over the next 14 years she would make over 1,000 jumps, first out of balloons and then as the first woman to jump from an airplane. Her talent and skill was sought after by the Army in WWI when they first started training their balloon and airplane pilots to use parachutes as a safety device. Tiny even accidentally invented the ripcord that's a staple in parachute design today. Her legacy stretches long, even if she's not as well known of a name as some in early aviation. We're exploring her life and legacy today on AirSpace. Thanks to our guest in this episode:Dr. Alex Spencer, Aeronautics Curator - National Air and Space MuseumSign up here for the monthly AirSpace newsletterAirSpace is made possible by the generous support of Olay.

Tiny Jumper

In the 1930s, rocketry was basically a joke among the scientific establishment in the U, but that didn't stop a rag tag group out of Pasadena from trying to build rockets. That group would first be known as The Suicide Squad (for all the dangerous experiments they conducted on campus) and later as the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Over its first decade, the JPL story includes funding challenges, communist intrigue, brushes with the occult, building weapons, building engines and ultimately--building rockets. Buckle in, this one's a wild ride.

Thanks to our guests in this episode:


Fraser MacDonald, Author, Escape from Earth: A Secret History of the Space Rocket
Erik Conway, JPL Historian
Interview with Frank Malina from the Caltech Archives and Special Collections


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AirSpace is made possible by the generous support of Olay.

The Suicide Squad

AirSpace will be back in two weeks with brand new epsiodes. In the meantime, enjoy this episode from our friends at the podcast, This is Love.

When twin rovers named Spirit and Opportunity landed on Mars twenty years ago, they were only supposed to last 90 Martian days. But years passed, they were still alive, and engineers kept taking care of them. “I remember telling myself, ‘Please don’t die, Opportunity. Please don’t die.’”

Find more information about this episode here. 

AirSpace is from the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.

Bonus! This is Love: Tau = 10.8

While we get Season Nine ready for you, we turned to our friends at Sidedoor to bring you a story of running and running and running and running…in Space! We’ll let them take it from here:

Until the 1970s, women were barred from competing in U.S. marathons because of the belief that the "violent movements" of running would wreak havoc on their reproductive system, "thus defeating a woman’s true purpose in life, i.e., the bringing forth of strong children." Through a series of steps, stumbles—and one epic tackle—running pioneers like Roberta "Bobbi" Gibb and Kathrine Switzer blazed the trail for women marathoners who followed, including Sunita Williams—the first person to run the Boston Marathon in space!


Sunita Williams, astronaut
Jennifer Levasseur, curator, Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum
Peter Sagal, marathoner; host of NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
Bobbi Gibb, first woman to run the Boston Marathon
Kathrine Switzer, first women to officially run the Boston Marathon


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AirSpace is made possible by the generous support of Olay.

Bonus! Space Marathon

You’ll have new AirSpace episodes soon, but since they may have found Amelia Earhart’s plane(!!!) we thought we’d revisit our episode on her and Eleanor Roosevelt’s somewhat unlikely friendship.

On a spring evening in 1933, Amelia Earhart took first lady Eleanor Roosevelt on a joyride. Imagine two women—dressed for dinner at the White House (white gloves and all)—stealing away from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave to pilot and co-pilot a nighttime flight to Baltimore. On this episode of AirSpace, we’re detailing the high-flying friendship of these two women – from their shared background as social workers to their mutual love of flight and advocacy of women’s empowerment and social justice. Amelia and Elanor took the business of being role models seriously, leading by example and using their influence to elevate important societal issues. Talk about an influencer power couple!

Thanks to our guests who helped us contextualize their history and friendship – biographers Allida Black and Susan Butler.

AirSpace is made possible by the generous support of Olay.

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Leaving for Paris

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