Women’s History Month: Nashville Edition

You may have enjoyed a jog around Cornelia Fort Airpark in East Nashville, or maybe your child learned to ride a bike there. But do you know the namesake of the airpark is a Nashville aviation legend? 

Born into a prominent Nashville family on February 5, 1919, Cornelia Clark Fort graduated Ward-Belmont School in 1936 and Sarah Lawrence College in 1939. She showed an early interest in aviation. Cornelia was the second woman to earn her commercial pilot’s license and the first woman to earn an instructor’s license in Tennessee. 

Her career as a civilian pilot instructor brought her to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. On December 7, 1941, she was flying near Pearl Harbor when her instructional plane was nearly hit by an incoming Japanese military plane. Moments later, bombers joined in the sky. She is credited as the first US pilot to encounter the Japanese air fleet during the Pearl Harbor attack.

In 1942, Cornelia was recruited for the newly formed Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron, the predecessor to the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP). While stationed in California, Cornelia ferried military planes to bases around the country. On March 21, 1943, she was flying in formation from Long Beach to Dallas Love Field. While flying over Mulberry Canyon, Texas, the landing gear of a companion plane struck her plane’s wing, causing an irreversible dive and crash. Cornelia Fort was the first US female pilot to die in active duty.