Featuring author Raquel Ramsey with Toni Kiser, the Museum’s Senior Registrar & Director of Collections Management

Join us for a webinar concluding our Women’s History Month programming discussing a pioneer in American aviation.

In October 1944, Nadine Ramsey was 33, and she was flying the cutting-edge P-51 Mustang to New Jersey, its last stop before heading to the war in Europe. The irrepressible young woman from Wichita had long been determined to fly, and the gathering storm clouds of World War II had provided an unexpected opportunity. Nadine's inspiring story is of a girl from Depression-era Kansas who overcame tremendous challenges and defied convention to become an elite pilot—one of the few American women to fly fighter aircraft during World War II.

Becoming one of 1,102 women to join the Women’s Airforce Service Pilots and one of only 303 WASPs to take to the skies in military cockpits, Nadine transported aircraft to bases across the nation for use in the theaters of war. Disbanded in late 1944 to make way for male pilots and barred from piloting for commercial airlines, the WASPs spent the next three decades fighting to win veteran status.

Taking Flight: The Nadine Ramsey Story is a profile in courage of a woman who helped clear the flight path for today’s female combat and commercial aviators.

Raquel Ramsey, a retired teacher, is the widow of Nadine’s brother, Col. Edwin P. Ramsey, a decorated World War II hero, and the executive producer of his documentary, Never Surrender: The Ed Ramsey Story.