Anyone who knows me is aware of the fact that I have an enchantment with strong women. I 'm not sure why exactly, but maybe my background and the fact that I used to outwardly acquiesce so easily is part of the reason why I am fiercely supportive of women who follow their passions no matter the obstacles in their way. Add that to my fascination with history, and it was no suprirse that I found FlyGirls and Hilary Prentice. Hilary is the producer of this "work in progress," and earlier this summer, she and I were able to chat quite extensively about the origin of the series and what the next step is for this aspiring show.
RH: I think I may have found you and Fly Girls through the Artemis Film Festival.
HP: That could be. They are big supporters …show more content…
They do mention black men at Tuskegee. And they mention the Navajo Indians. They didn 't really talk about the women volunteering in any of the armed forces. They weren 't just volunteering; they were participating. A lot of women were doing office-type work, administration, and these women were flying the planes. They were testing the planes. It was very dangerous work. They were performing target practice exercises with the troops who were firing at them with live ammunition. It was really important, really dangerous work that they were doing. It was a time when aviation was constantly--you know, we were making leaps and bounds in planes and aviation technology. There was a lot we didn 't know. The war forced us to rapidly develop the jet engine. These women were flying planes that had been take off the factory line and had never been flown before and make sure that everything was okay with them. And they would also do regular maintenance-type flights with the planes that did exist to make sure that everything was in line. They would also fly supplies to the East coast or to New York and let the men take the supplies from there because the women were not allowed to fly overseas. I mean the American women were not. So they would bring the planes to the border, and the men would fly them overseas. In England, the women were not military. They were civilian air corps. It was called the Air Transport Auxilary--the ATA. And they were strictly civilians. They got paid the same as men and they got the same working conditions as men. The same thing. They were ferrying planes, but because they were overseas, they were ferrying them outside of England. And also they were under attack just by virtue of being in England. So they would fly in combat-type situations. They weren 't purposely flying combat missions. They were flying supplies up in the air, and the German
RH: I think I may have found you and Fly Girls through the Artemis Film Festival.
HP: That could be. They are big supporters …show more content…
They do mention black men at Tuskegee. And they mention the Navajo Indians. They didn 't really talk about the women volunteering in any of the armed forces. They weren 't just volunteering; they were participating. A lot of women were doing office-type work, administration, and these women were flying the planes. They were testing the planes. It was very dangerous work. They were performing target practice exercises with the troops who were firing at them with live ammunition. It was really important, really dangerous work that they were doing. It was a time when aviation was constantly--you know, we were making leaps and bounds in planes and aviation technology. There was a lot we didn 't know. The war forced us to rapidly develop the jet engine. These women were flying planes that had been take off the factory line and had never been flown before and make sure that everything was okay with them. And they would also do regular maintenance-type flights with the planes that did exist to make sure that everything was in line. They would also fly supplies to the East coast or to New York and let the men take the supplies from there because the women were not allowed to fly overseas. I mean the American women were not. So they would bring the planes to the border, and the men would fly them overseas. In England, the women were not military. They were civilian air corps. It was called the Air Transport Auxilary--the ATA. And they were strictly civilians. They got paid the same as men and they got the same working conditions as men. The same thing. They were ferrying planes, but because they were overseas, they were ferrying them outside of England. And also they were under attack just by virtue of being in England. So they would fly in combat-type situations. They weren 't purposely flying combat missions. They were flying supplies up in the air, and the German