Nancy Love and the WASP Ferry Pilots of World War II

Who was Nancy Love?

She flew the P-51 and the P-38, but the four-engine B-17 Flying Fortress was her forté. This is the story of Nancy Harkness Love who, early in World War II, recruited and led the first group of twenty-eight women to fly military aircraft for the U.S. Army.

When the United States entered World War II, the Army needed pilots to “ferry” its combat-bound aircraft across the United States for overseas deployment and its trainer airplanes to flight training bases. Most male pilots were assigned to combat, leaving few available for ferrying jobs. Into this vacuum stepped Nancy Love and her civilian Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS).

Jackie Cochran wanted to train women to perform a variety of the military’s flight-related jobs stateside. The Army implemented both programs and they became one under the name Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP). Cochran was named the Director of Women Pilots, and Nancy Love, Executive for the women pilots of the Ferrying Division.

By example, Love won the right for women ferry pilots to transition into increasingly more complex airplanes. She checked out on twenty-three different military aircraft and became the first woman to fly several of them, including the B-17.

Nancy Love believed that the women attached to the military needed to be on equal footing with the men and given the same opportunities to prove their abilities and mettle. Young women serving today as combat pilots owe much to Love for creating the opportunity for women to serve.

Now author Sarah Byrn Rickman, aviation historian, presents the first full-length biography of Nancy Love and her role in the WAFS and WASP programs. Her book will appeal to all with a love of flight.

Nancy Love and the WASP Ferry Pilots of WWII is available for purchase online from a variety of booksellers. Order your copy now, from:


Or, if you would like to purchase a copy signed by the author,
email Sarah to request information on how to order one directly from her!


Praise for Nancy Love and the WASP Ferry Pilots of World War II

What do women in aviation have to say about Nancy Love and the WASP Ferry Pilots of World War II, by Sarah Byrn Rickman?

“Nancy Love made her own indelible mark on history. Her story, insightfully chronicled and reverently told, is a must-read for all who relish courage, tenacity, and a fearless desire to serve our nation in time of its greatest need. Today’s military pilots owe her a debt of gratitude for breaking the ground that allowed all members of future generations to serve.”
- Brig. Gen. Linda K. McTague, Air National Guard

“Reading this book, I could feel the essence of Nancy’s life: her love of flying, her leadership, her focus on the mission. I wanted to do what she was doing: flying, leading, making a contribution to our country’s future. I feel a sisterhood with Nancy Love, and am grateful to share in her experiences through this book.”
- Col. Eileen M. Collins, U.S. Air Force (Ret.), First Woman Space Shuttle Pilot and Commander

“For anyone interested in a wonderful story of aviation or wanting to know more about this famous woman, this book is a must-read.”
- Peggy Chabrian, President/Founder, Women in Aviation, International

“An ‘edge of your seat’ story. Sarah Byrn Rickman brings Nancy Love and Jackie Cochran back to life and re-creates their historical clash, making it as real as if it were happening today. It’s like a boxing match, one that evenly pits Nancy’s ‘ladylike’ personality against Jackie’s ‘brash’ one. Sarah’s portrayal of how these women ‘played the game’ is worthy of the best-seller list!”
- Commander Trish Beckman, U.S. Navy (Ret.)


An excerpt from the prologue of Nancy Love and the WASP Ferry Pilots of World War II, pages 3 and 4:

After landing, parking the airplane, cutting the switches, and cleaning up the cockpit, she rose, dropped her headset and oxygen mask on the seat, and followed her passengers and crew out of the airplane into the thin, high-altitude air and pale winter sunshine. She wore an Army-issue flight suit. Had it not been for her softly curled, chin-length hair—caught behind her ears in deference to the earphones she had worn and definitely out of place in the crew cut male world of 1945—she might have passed for a young crewman.

As she walked toward the group of officers clustered on the ground, she did not stride purposefully nor did she walk like many women would have, to call attention to herself. She was, in fact, slightly pigeon-toed and had a hint of a glide to her step. She moved with a poise that bespoke more self-assurance than she actually possessed.

When she smiled, her luminous, gold-flecked hazel eyes took in each man, graciously making him feel as if he, personally, was the object of that smile. Her firm pilot’s handshake, offered in greeting, belied the small, slender, feminine hand beneath.

Thirty-year-old Nancy Love was a strikingly beautiful woman with high cheekbones and delicate features. She had begun to go gray at nineteen, beginning with a streak that swept back from the right side of her forehead. By 1945, her light brown hair had turned mostly silver, casting an aura of maturity about her.

Her reserve, carefully honed over those thirty years, masked her drive. Nancy greeted challenges with cool assessment, never allowing the passion that lurked just beneath the surface to show in her cultured, contralto voice. That she had been asked to take part in this [special] flight, to fly this airplane, was a coup—the high point in a distinguished aviation career that, by 1945, had covered fifteen years.