Women Marine ATCs at work during the Korean War (location unknown). On the fi eld in the background is a row of military training aircraft.
Photo: U.S. Marine Corps.
TOWERING WOMEN F
By Giacinta Bradley Koontz
ebruary is Black History Month, during which Americans working aviation-related jobs are reminded of the contributions of aircraft mechanics
and teachers like Cornelius Coff ey and Willa Brown and pilots Besse Coleman and WWII’s Tuskegee Airmen. March is the month to honor women in history. It has been adopted in our industry as Women in Aviation History month. You might already know of the many aviation records
established by America’s famed aviatrix, Amelia Earhart, during the 1920s and 1930s. You might also know that the fi rst woman to solo across the Atlantic Ocean (east to west) was Beryl Markham, fl ying a Perceval Vega Gull in 1936. The fi rst woman to fl y faster than the speed of sound was Jacqueline Cochran in 1953, at the controls of a North American F-86 Sabre. The fi rst woman to solo around the world was Sheila Scott, who departed from England in 1966 in a Piper Commanche. You might also recognize Phoebe Omlie and Ruth Nichols as America’s fi rst and second female licensed aircraft mechanics in 1927. My research has focused on pilots and mechanics in early
aviation, but I wondered, “Who was the fi rst American female air traffi c controller?”
FLAGS AND A LUNCH BOX With few aircraft in the air between 1903 and WWI, there was no need for controlling a landing fi eld except during air meets or races. In the late 1920s, aviation boomed with more men and women fl ying and more municipal airports built to accommodate them. The airport control tower, as we now know it, evolved with the advent of ground- to-air radio communications. Commercial fl ights such as those Transcontinental Air Transport (TAT) off ered in 1929 and1930 required improved airport operations. There must have been some women at work directing air
traffi c during the 1920s and 1930s, but I haven’t been able to identify them. However, the FAA claims Archie William League (1907-1986) as their fi rst male air traffi c controller (ATC). Already a licensed pilot and aircraft mechanic in 1929, League was hired to direct traffi c at the fi eld in St. Louis, which is now St. Louis International Airport. With colored fl ags, League signaled to aircraft when it was safe to take off or land. He hauled his fl ags, chair, lunch box, notebooks and a shade umbrella to the end of the fi eld in a wheelbarrow. During the winter, League bundled up in his fl ying suit. When the airport acquired radio communication equipment in the 1930s, League became the airport’s fi rst radio controller. Thereafter, League excelled in his 36-year career helping to develop the Federal Air Traffi c Control System.
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