06/05/2023
Seen here is Evelyn G. Sharp, one of America’s earliest female pilots, standing in front of her personal aircraft at the Central Nebraska Regional Airport in June 1938. Known as “Nebraska’s Aviatrix,” Sharp was raised in Ord, Nebraska. In 1935, at age sixteen, she started flying lessons and just over a year after those lessons began, she took her first solo flight. Sharp had a brief but illustrious career. She trained over 350 men to fly, many of whom would become pilots during WWII. She was a member of the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) and the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP). Sharp kept flying until her death in 1944, when an engine failure crashed her plane in Cumberland, Pennsylvania. She was only twenty-four years old. Though her life was short, it is a testament to the successes that can come out of even the most trying of times.
