All language subtitles for Vbfgthjk 2019

[tranquil music playing]

[Afton] Daisy Mae!

[clucking]

This one, come on. Lulu!

What? Stevie. That one's Stevie.

This one's Eda.
That one's Billy.

Billy.

Come on, guys. Snack!

I don't think they can see it.
It's green like the grass.

Come on, guys. Snack!

Hey, Bessie.

Bessie is named
after Bessie Coleman,

which is like the first female
African-American aviator.

Amelia is in here. Hey, hey.

Amelia is a talker.

Amelia. Hey, ugh.

Her name is Amelia
named after Amelia Earhart

since I like aviation
and they're girls.

Oh, really? Pfft.
She's talking, heh.

Well, this plane
has Patty Wagstaff in it,

which I made myself.

It originally had a, uh,
a boy driver or like pilot

so I decided I'm like no,

I want it to change it
to Miss Patty

so I made my own little
Patty Lego

to be flying in it
with my Star Wars battle so...

Well,
Miss Patty is a female pilot

which she does stunt planes

and I love to watch her
at like air shows

and I love her flying up
and out.

I just think a stunt pilot
is really cool.

Girls make better pilots than
boys because we're way smarter.

No offense.

[upbeat music playing]

♪ You won't ever see us
Back away ♪

♪ Ti! we make the world see
That we ain't come to play ♪

♪ This is so lil girls dream
Bigger than they supposed to ♪

♪ And we get a fair share of pie
On the plate ♪

♪ I am her, I am her ♪

♪ I am her ♪

♪ Pardon this interruption
Of your daily status quo ♪

♪ We're here to disrupt ♪

♪ The arrangement
Of your daddy's show ♪

♪ This double extraordinary
Enigmatic flow is ♪

♪ Brought to you by Audre
And Bell and Maya Angelou ♪

♪ Hand 'em over
We need the titles, receipts ♪

♪ The empire replete
With the power to speak ♪

♪ And, no
This is not a request ♪

♪ Hundreds of years of forced
Silence got a lot on my chest ♪

♪ And we don't need
Your approval ♪

♪ On our style of address
Or style of the dress ♪

♪ I'll rock a head wrap
And bulletproof vest ♪

♪ And start my lyrical sermon
With this ♪

♪ Mother you guessed it ♪

♪ Just so we're clear on who
Governs reproductive requests ♪

♪ It's not up to anyone's
Opinion on how I protect it ♪

♪ I'm part of collectives from
Mali to Mecca getting bigger ♪

♪ And our premiere be major
No longer hidden figures ♪

♪ We out to level the playing
Field for them young queens ♪

♪ Coming for that wage gap til
We recoup them Hidden figures ♪

I In '97, million women marched
And I was with it ♪

♪ In 2017, the same
The establishment livid ♪

♪ If this a man's world we came
Here to grab the equivalents ♪

♪ And watch
The future reimagined ♪

♪ By the hand of the feminine ♪

♪ You won't ever see us
Back away ♪

♪ Ti! we make the world see that
We ain't come to play ♪

♪ This is so lil girls dream
Bigger than they supposed to ♪

♪ And we get a fair share of pie
On the plate ♪

♪ I am her, I am her ♪

♪ You won't ever see us
Back away ♪

♪ Ti! we make the world see
That we ain't come to play ♪

♪ This is so lil girls dream
Bigger than they supposed to ♪

♪ And we get a fair share
Of pie on the plate ♪

♪ I am her, I am her ♪

♪ I am her ♪

[man 1] The airplane, symbol
of our mastery of the skies,

Is spanning oceans and
continents in ever dwindling hours,

bringing new hope
to the people of the world,

Is spanning oceans and
continents in ever dwindling hours,

new horizons to industry
and new careers to you.

For air transportation
has proved itself a vital factor

in the social and economic life
of modern civilization.

It is a rapidly
expanding industry

Embracing many trades
and professions.

An industry employing
thousands of persons.

and earn your living in a
youthful and romantic industry,

And if you want to learn

Air transportation
presents a challenge

And an opportunity
for your life work.

[upbeat music playing]

Well, I really wanted
to be a pilot when I was a kid.

I wanted to be an airline pilot
like my dad.

And, uh, but my parents said,
you know, "Girls don't become pilots.

You can't really do that."

You know, I dreamed
about becoming an astronaut,

And I always knew that
I could do any of that stuff

and so on, but the oppor...

but there weren't opportunities
for girls.

that there weren't any
limitations to what I could do

An accountant the next day,
an astronaut the next day.

I mean,
I just changed on the weekly.

When I was young,

I was that kid, uh, that wanted
to be a ballerina one day,

But it just seemed like
something that was really cool.

It didn't even then seemed like
something that I should consider,

as, you know, as reality.

I'm originally from Afghanistan.

My family and I came to the United
States during the Afghan-Soviet war.

Uh, so my family came
to the U.S. as refugees.

It was very difficult for me
to connect with school.

I grew up in Richmond,
California,

where it's a very
underprivileged school district.

Substitute teachers
were the norm.

English was not
my first language.

It was actually my third.

Uh, so I kind of found myself
in this environment

where, uh,
school wasn't motivating.

I struggled a lot in school.

I wasn't good in math
or science, um...

And I really didn't read my
first chapter book until I was 13.

I knew I wanted to be
an astronaut at the age of nine

when I was looking up
at the stars,

and I thought, "Wow, I wonder
what those things are."

And ever since then,
I wanted to go into space.

In school, I used to get bullied a
lot for me wanting to go to space

and wanting to be an astronaut.

Girls are taught to be girly

and stuff that they should
look like and images they...

They can't live up to and I think
they just stop believing in themselves

and stop what they want to do.

My parents had no idea
I wanted to be a pilot.

I was just a kid
that wanted to play outside.

I wanted to go on trips

and go to, you know, Orlando to
go to all the theme parks and stuff.

Um, being an aviator
never really crossed my mind.

Growing up, I... I was fed a steady
diet of science fiction and fantasy.

Uh, so to me, space exploration
never seemed like an unrealistic goal.

It was definitely something
that was attainable

because my heroines and heroes
in books were doing it every day.

How could I not?

The first person to actually tell me
that my dream was highly unlikely

and very improbable was my mom.

She sat me down one day,
and she was like,

"Abby, do you have any idea
how difficult this is?"

She told me then and there, "If this is
something that you really want to do,

you have to make a plan, and
you have to be ready to work for it."

And so I went away from that
discussion, and I did some research.

And I typed out a couple
of different documents of ways

that I could go about
becoming an astronaut.

When someone tells you
that your dream is impossible,

you have to prove to them
that it's not.

I can be not only the first woman
on Mars, but the first person on Mars.

From that moment on, my mom
has been my biggest supporter.

Actually had no interest
in aviation.

My dream was to go be a
psychologist and be a grief counselor.

So I had never flown.

I had planes would fly over,
I didn't look twice.

It wasn't something
that really piqued my interest.

I had a teacher who encouraged me
to look into a school here in Lake Glenn

called Central Florida
Aerospace Academy.

And I started learning
about ground schooling

and how planes fly, and learning
how to read weather reports

and learning how to talk to air
traffic control and things like that.

And I was addicted.

I was at Career Day Army ROTC.

I did not want to go into the
aviation tent at all whatsoever.

I actually made the comment,

"Like people don't fly,"
which is so not true, right?

Tuskegee Airmen
Bessie Coleman, Willa Brown,

and when we walked
into the tent,

I saw a black woman in a
flight suit and it blew my mind.

The moment I knew
I wanted to be a pilot

was when I saw that woman
in the flight suit.

Now, when did I actually
make the step to become a pilot?

Uh, I actually applied
four years,

well, actually three years
skipping one year.

Women could only apply
once a year

with the Marine Corps
to become an officer.

They didn't take my application
the first time.

They didn't take it the
second time. I skipped a year.

And on the fourth time,
they accepted my application.

They say when the door closes
another one opens

but they didn't tell you
it might be down the hall

and up the stairs
or around the corner.

Uh, I have like my winning
collectable planes that I like

and I have some on my desk,
like this plane.

And I build some of my planes
like a Wright Brothers plane,

and I have a lot of the balsa wood
throw like paper airplanes and stuff.

One of the windup ones
that I've made

and just some posters
and a painting.

So I have a lot of, heh,
airplane stuff.

So, yeah.

There was a time that daddy
and, you, and myself,

we had all gone to the bank.

And, uh, they were doing something
with our insurance paperwork

and the lady referred to you
as princess.

She said, "Hi, princess..."
You were four.

She said, "Hi, princess."

And your usual, you got really angry
and you said, "I'm not a princess."

I don't do f... What did you...

"I don't do fairy tales,
I do flight plans."

The first time I've flown
a plane, I didn't really know.

I just like looking out
the window really,

and just seeing everything
below me.

We knew Afton was interested
in aviation

because if there was ever
a plane flying anywhere,

if you're out anywhere, she
will stop and stare at the plane.

I mean, but she has been doing
that since she was two.

I mean, she could be
in a room full of toys

and she's out the window
staring at the airplanes.

Uh, take her to a toy store and all
she wants to look at are the planes.

That's it. Nothing else.
Okay, Legos.

-Legos.
-Legos.

Airplane Legos would be
like, the ultimate, right?

Um, so she's always been
that way.

She's just never...
She's never deviated from that.

I mean, even preschool where the
child changes their mind every week.

I'm going to be a nurse.
I'm going to be a chef.

Princess was a lot in preschool.

A lot of kids said that
but what did you always say?

Pilot.

I mean, I have her record from when
she was in preschool, at preschool.

She's like four years old and
she said, "I'm going to be a pilot"

and it just always stuck.

I think flying behind the yoke
and be...

The feel of flying like a bird
is just... I like it.

I don't really
know how to explain it, just...

I just feel like
I'm floating on the sky.

When people say I can't be
a pilot, I don't listen to them.

I just keep doing it.

I just like being in the air
and mostly when taking off

because it feels kind of
like a roller coaster

which I love roller coasters,
so...

I grew up in depression years.

And my brother
was 13 months older than I.

He graduated high school
and he got a scholarship.

There were still expenses
sending him there

and there just wasn't
enough money to send me.

I had to go out
into the working world.

I worked my way up
to a private secretary,

always saying, "I wish I
had further education."

And then one day I said,

"Stop feeling sorry for yourself
and do something about it."

So I looked up
at Newark College of Engineering

and they gave night courses
and I went to night school.

And I didn't exactly know
what I wanted to take up,

but they had a course
in aviation.

So I said, "That sounds
interesting. I'll take that."

But when the course
was finished,

I said, "I think I'll take
a flying lesson

and see what this is all about."

Well, the first time I was up,
I was hooked.

Well, it was really an issue of
fairness that I got involved in aviation.

I actually thought I was going
to become a military linguist

because I speak
several languages.

The instructor sat all of us
down in my class

and said, "Okay, well, men,
doesn't matter what your, um,

major is in college,

you have to of your top five
choices or ten choices,

the majority of them have
to be Combat Arms branches."

And they didn't have a choice.

It was a requirement that they put
themselves in the proof of combat.

And then he said,
"Except for Duckworth."

I was the only woman
in my class.

And he said, "Duckworth doesn't have
to put any down because she's female."

And I just thought
that was patently unfair

because I knew I was going
to get equal pay for equal work

so I felt like
I should take equal risks.

And I said, "Well, what, what branch
that is Combat Arms is accepting women?"

And they said, "Well, there's only
two, Air Defense Artillery and aviation."

And the only one that likely will allow
women to see combat anytime soon is aviation.

So I made that my first choice.

It was really out of just feeling
that it was important to be fair, too,

and spare the same risk.

And then I got to flight school
and just fell in love with it.

I really was looking for something to
get can I sink my teeth in, to excel at.

I didn't know
what it was going to be

but, I, you know, I knew aviation
was going to be a path to that.

I took lessons
when I moved to Alaska

and it seems like everybody
in Alaska flies,

so I had an opportunity up there
to take some lessons.

What started my involvement in
aviation was this place right here, really.

You know,
a family that loved flying.

Uh, my dad loved to build
and fly small airplanes.

And this, you know, Clearwater Air
Park was the place that happened.

So as a family,
we hung out here a lot.

And I got to work on airplanes.

I got to meet people
who love to fly airplanes.

And that was a really interesting
and inspiring thing for me.

While I might not remember
the exact flight that it was,

I have total memory
of getting off the Earth

in an airplane
of looking over the,

you know, top of the front
cockpit of my dad's airplane.

And, you know, seeing my
neighborhood in a totally different way,

that kind of perspective shift
that happens

when you have the opportunity
to separate from something.

And I think that... that whole,
like sense of it, you know,

it was more than just
what you see with your eyes,

you're actually feeling it,
it becomes part of you,

is what really drove me
to want to know how things fly,

to want to fly myself,

to want to consider what opportunities
could open up for me because of flying.

I grew up terrified of aviation.

Uh, the only exposure that I had
to anything related to flight

were aircraft accidents on... on television
and I remember looking over at my mom

and saying, "Mom, I hope I never
have to find an airplane."

I would rather take a bus,
take a train, walk, crawl.

I just, I never want to get
inside of an airplane.

When I was 17 years old, just
graduating from high school,

uh, my parents surprised me
with an airline ticket for me

to fly from California
to Florida.

I made my way to my seat and I sat
down strapped in my seatbelt thinking,

"My gosh, this plane is going to
launch into the sky like a rocket."

And I hold on to the armrests thinking,
"Okay, this is it. It's time to face my fear."

I could feel the, uh...
the aircraft accelerating

and lifting off the ground and it
was so beautiful and so romantic.

And from that moment on, I knew this
is what I want to do the rest of my life.

[upbeat music playing]

[man 2]
Roaring into the Oakland Airport

she brings
to a triumphant finish

a 2,400-mile hop from Hawaii
after 18 hours in the air.

10,000 cheer the end
of the epical flight

as Lady Lindy slides into a
perfect landing with two records,

the first woman to fly
the Pacific Ocean,

the first person to fly it solo.

She receives one of the most
tumultuous greetings ever recorded a flyer.

[clatters]

[indistinct chatter]

Roses to Amelia
and the plaudits of the world

to a veteran of flights that have
shown the way for aviation's progress.

It's our most brilliant chapter
in a 16-year aviation career.

How does it feel to fly
both oceans, Ms. Earhart?

Well, it was very interesting to me to fly
in southern waters rather than in the north.

On the Atlantic flight, I had ice
conditions and general storm.

On this flight, really no bad weather
at all except a few little rain squalls.

I saw the Moon and stars
most of the night.

I think I was 15 or 16.
I had just started driving.

I was driving by myself. And I lived
about a mile away from Burbank Airport.

And I was driving home and there
was a sandwich board on the street.

And it said, "Demo flights $15."

And I pulled over, I call my mom

and I said, "Mom, I really,
really, really want to do this.

Uh, there's a flight school
that's doing intro flights.

Can you please bring $15
because I don't have it?"

And that was
my very first flight

and I had my mom with my baby sister
sitting in the back next to my brother.

And I was sitting upfront with the flight
instructor and I was on Cloud Eleven.

It was the coolest thing.

The point in my flight training
that was really the affirmation

that's what I wanted to do
was my first solo.

The Sun was kind of shining
through these clouds.

It had just rained,

so it was a beautiful kind of glory
moment of like, this is your runway.

This is you. And it was
just kind of like a moment

where it kind of took
my breath away

and it really was like,
this is amazing.

I am controlling this plane.
This is what I want to do.

I started flying in flight school in a
Huey, Vietnam-era helicopter, a H Moto Huey.

I was one of three officers in my class
selected out of 40 to, uh, fly the Black Hawk,

to get trained in the Black Hawk which
was considered an advanced aircraft.

I have been flying commercially
since I was a little baby

but to be
in the flight controls,

to be controlling this aircraft
was an amazing thing.

And to think that my country
trusted in me to do this,

to protect and defend her, uh,
was really quite a privilege.

I initially decided
to become a pilot

as a way to further my goals
to become an astronaut.

But once I started flying and once I
started to get to know the aviation industry

and get more familiar with...
with aircraft,

I realized that
flying is a passion of its own.

Flying, it's...
it's a feeling unlike any other.

Oh, it definitely looks
different from up here.

[man 3] Yeah,
you can't figure out anything.

[laughs]

[inaudible].

It's something that... I am
struggling for words to describe

because flying is so beautiful
and so different from daily life.

[woman 1 over the radio]
Cessna 959 [inaudible] signal is...

[chuckles]

[man 4 over the radio]
[inaudible] Runway 108.

-[man 3] Just like that.
-That is so fantastic.

[man 3] Yep.

[laughs] So I had a couple
different first-time times flying,

whether it was the first time
in a T-34 Charlie Turbo Mentor,

or it was the first time
in the Bell Helicopter.

The first time I lifted just
the skids broke the deck, right.

I'm flying. This is gold.
And I'm just in the backseat.

You feel like you're floating.

Or the first time I climbed into the cockpit
of that AH1 Whiskey SuperCobra helicopter,

and feeling it taxi out to the
runway, push down on the stick,

pull up on the throttle,
feeling that nose go shift

and you could feel
that momentum.

Out of all the different
experiences

I've had in a first
in the cockpit,

they've all been amazing,
they've all had their magic

and it will be an experience
I'll never forget.

It was tough going
from my background of my science

and my math skills
and bringing it up to the level

that it needed to be
for me to become a pilot,

the one feeling
that kept me going every time,

uh, whenever I'd feel down
or I felt unmotivated

was the feeling
that I would feel in the air.

And for me, um, it...
it didn't matter who I was

or what my background was.

It didn't matter that
I am a refugee from Afghanistan,

from a family of six girls.

None of those things matter.

When I'm in the airplane
and I'm being propelled forward,

all that matters is my ability
to fly that aircraft.

And that feeling is something
that I have found

and I have from day one
wanted to hold on to.

When I went to college and my
parents knew I wanted to be a pilot

since I was 14 years old but they
insisted that I went to university.

So I went to UC San Diego
and I got a degree in an area

that I really just had
an interest in as a hobby

but nothing to do with aviation
so I got a psychology degree.

It was almost like I took
a seven-year vacation

from learning anything
about aviation.

And then once I was done
with that, walked onto the airport,

started interviewing which
flight school I wanted to go to,

got my pilot's rating
in 34 days.

Haven't left the airport since.

[upbeat music playing]

[man 4] Mrs. Jerrie Mock

pauses briefly in Oakland,
California,

as she nears the end of a
successful around the world solo flight.

After a quick check out
of her 11-year-old light plane,

the Ohio housewife prepares
to take off for Columbus

on the final leg of a 23,000-mile
journey with 21 stops in 29 days,

she is the first woman
to make the solo world flight

and she's racked up a flock
of records in the bargain

as she arrives to a hearty
greeting in Columbus.

Tired but happy, Mrs. Mock receives
a governmental award for her feat,

honor for a high-flying
housewife.

[upbeat music playing]

Well, I knew I wanted to fly
myself.

Uh, you know, I wanted to earn
my private pilot's license.

I wanted to be able to get off
the planet myself in an airplane.

Uh, so I, after high school, uh,
went to the local community college.

They had this great program
called Aviation Administration.

It was basically kind of aviation
business degree or an introduction to it.

But as part of it, you could
earn your private pilot's license.

I really had to figure out
what is it I wanted to do

and that was more wanting
to know how things fly

and that's what led me down the
aeronautical engineering path.

And so I just continued to
pursue the kind of the love of flying

from the standpoint
of how do things fly

and that led me to NASA
as a NASA engineer.

[Bernice] Jacqueline Cochran had
been trying since 1938 or 1939

to convince the Army Air Corps that they
should be training women as well as men.

One day in the newspaper,

there appeared an article
about Mrs. Sheehy,

who was going to be interviewing for those
who might want to enter the WASP training,

WASP being the
Women Air Force Service Pilots.

Uh, I think, there were only
when that war started,

December 7th, '41,

uh, 30,000 qualified
male pilots.

The main reason that we were formed
was to relieve men for active duty.

Let's see if the women can do all the
jobs now there were many jobs to be done

and, eventually, we were
stationed at a 150 different bases

and that's how I got started in
flying for the Army Air Corps.

I was always interested
in aerobatics, um...

But I'd never seen it.
I'd never been to an air show.

I started saying to my husband, I
really am interested in aerobatics.

And I was sitting in, uh,
a little FBO in Michigan,

and I found this
Sport Aerobatics Magazine,

which is the international
aerobatic club magazine.

And, uh, I said, "Look, there's
a whole club devoted to this.

There's contests
and articles about it."

I was just fascinated.
I read every single word.

So, he said,
"Okay, let's go to an air show

and we go to a competition
and see how you like it."

So we flew our plane,
we had a Cessna 185,

and we flew our plane down
to Canada, went to an air show,

and then we flew it
to Minnesota, or to Wisconsin,

to a contest.

Um, and I got to see that, too,
and I was just blown away.

I said, "That's... that's what
I want to do. I can do that."

My first ten hours of aerobatics was
with a woman in Anchorage, Alaska,

and in her decathlon.

It took me a while
to find a teacher.

And, uh, I loved it. I was...
I was so excited about doing it.

I was afraid for some reason
it wouldn't agree with me

and I wouldn't be good at it,
that was my big fear.

But when I had to go
up the first time and do it,

it was a big deal, I went
up really high. It went okay.

You know, you got to put your money
where your mouth is here, you know, heh.

[Afton] So we're at the Florida
Strawberry Festival

and I am dropping off my two
chickens, Georgia and Bessie.

I named some of my chickens
after female aviators

because I'm really
into aviation,

and I thought it'd be
a good name for them.

And kind of their colors they kind of
remind me of the flight suits and stuff

that they wore.

[clucking]

Shh.

It's okay. Good girl.

[clucking]

Good girl. Don't be stressed
out. It's going to be okay.

[rooster crows]

My hobbies, um...

I love my chickens and I take
them to shows, in race chickens,

build Legos, obviously,
um, and I also like golfing.

We originally, um, sent her to a,
um, green school, an all-green school.

Um, they had a garden and such.

Uh, they also had chickens.

It was a great school, A school.
A-rated school.

There's a waitlist. There's
a waiting list to get in.

Friend of mine had gone,
and myself gone and looked.

She's a teacher and she was
looking at different teachers' options.

And they had an open house
of lots of different schools,

and we found an open house.

We weren't thinking
of changing her schools,

but they had, uh, flight
simulators in an elementary school.

And I was like, whoa.

And so...

Joel and I decided to make
the switch which is crazy,

because the school really
didn't get rated the "highest".

Um, but you know what, it rated
the highest for her needs.

It had what she needed, what
she craved, what she thrived in.

I think it has expanded
her horizons

and made her think so far outside
the box and on a whole different level.

[man 5] Ladies and gentleman,

what you've just seen is a
way man is not intended to fly.

And let me tell you what,
that's not a man flying.

That's many-time national
champion, Patty Wagstaff,

in her extra aircraft,
ladies and gentlemen.

One of the most skilled pilots
on the airshow circuit today,

a three-time
U.S- National Aerobatic Champ,

six-time member
of the U.S. aerobatic team,

and a six-time winner

of the Betty Skelton First Lady
of Aerobatics award.

Patty's won so many awards
for her flying.

In 2004, she was inducted into
the national aviation hall of fame.

She's received both the
National Air and Space Museum

for current achievement

and the U.S. Air Force
Lifetime Achievement Award.

And the airplane,
the early one she flew,

the Prototype Extra 260 hangs in the
U.S. National Air and Space Museum,

very close to those
of Amelia Earhart.

Basically, I spent, you know,
seven years of my life

just thinking, eating,
breathing,

um, being a full-time, you know,
professional aerobatic pilot,

with the goal of winning
the Nationals.

The men didn't see that
a woman could win the Nationals,

and so the overall championship.

And I started seeing, you know,
the sexism and, um, the mindset.

This isn't a sport like tennis
where we're built differently.

This is... this is an airplane and the
airplane doesn't know the difference.

And so I said, "Well, you know, why
hasn't a woman won the Nationals?"

And the men would say, "Well,
women aren't aggressive enough."

Or, "Well, the judges
would never let it happen."

Or, you know, "They just
don't have what it takes."

I started it as an education
process of,

you know, of course,
a woman can win.

You know, we don't do anything
any different.

The airplane doesn't know
the difference.

And there's no reason
why women can't win.

Then after I won the first time,
a friend said,

"You know,
you've got to win again."

I'm like, "Why is that?"

He said, "Because they'll think
it's a fluke"

because you're a woman."

So you have to do more
than a guy would have to do."

So I made it my goal
to win three times.

And since then, a number of
women have won the U.S. Nationals,

which is really cool
and the next woman that won it,

um, somebody came up
and said, "So how do you feel?

Do you feel jealous?"
And I said, "Are you kidding?

That's just what
I would hope for."

I was hoping
that other women would win.

I was tired of being this kind
of a freak and a fluke

and, "Well, she's different," you know,
"She is more aggressive," which is not true.

Um, I just put the same into it
than anybody else would.

[tranquil music playing]

[man 5] Well,
Patty gets a good sight on it.

She's going to turn that
extremely inverted position

and see if she can cut
the ribbon upside down,

all approaching at an
approximately 120 miles an hour.

I believe the ribbon
is in peril.

Let's keep your eyes on it.
Get those cameras rolling.

She comes down on the deck.

Watch for her to go to the inverted
position and line up on that ribbon.

I think that ribbon's lifespan
is going to be very short.

Here she comes.

Remember, less than
22 feet off the ground,

inverted show center.

Oh, that ribbon is a dead money.

She's got a beautiful job.
How about that?

Give her a big round of
applause, ladies and gentlemen.

This is Patty Wagstaff.

[upbeat music playing]

[man 6] This is Texas,
cradle of our army's Air Force.

This is an AAF field too,

but over headquarters ride
the strange,

little girl gremlin
called Fifinella.

And out of those buses
are stepping girls,

girls who give a new angle
to an air force story.

They're WASPS: Women's Air Force
Service Pilots.

It was experimental.

The Army Air Corps
didn't know whether women

would be capable of living
the military life

and flying
the military aircraft.

Here we were trained just the
way the male cadets were trained.

Up at 6AM,
a half a day of flying

and a half a day
of ground school.

And everything was...
was military.

We were treated military
all the way through.

And, yet, we were not military.

Fortunately, uh,
I always had good instructors.

They were serious about it.

They didn't mind
teaching female.

There were some instructors
that resented the fact.

I mean, this is their field
flying airplanes.

Women should not be flying
airplanes.

And there was one incident where,
uh, women were sent to B26 School,

and when they got there,

the instructor that was supposed
to check them out in the B26 said...

[laughs] "I'm not teaching
any damn women how to fly."

Well, he had to.
It was an order.

Once you graduated
and had your wings,

then we were sent to a field
to do something.

Some of the commanding
officers there,

they did not want women
on their base.

A lot of people
had a misconception

and did not really, really know
exactly what we were doing.

Now there were many jobs
to be done.

You need to fly gunners

so they have practice shooting
from a moving aircraft.

You need towed targets so the
anti-aircraft can practice shooting.

You need pilots to fly at nights
so the beams have practice.

So all those involved a pilot.

Sometimes,
the anti-aircraft gunners

that were learning
how to shoot them

would hit the airplane
instead of the target.

And there was one case
where the aircraft crashed.

And she couldn't get
the hatch open.

And then there was another case

where someone had put sugar
in the gas tank.

And when that aircraft took off,
it crashed and she was killed.

There were 38 of us that
were killed in the line of service.

So it was not a frivolous job.

[man 7] Graduation day means
that they've grown up.

They're army fliers.

As they know their experience here has
been no interlude for romantic adventure

but a period of intensive
training for a highly important job.

At the moment, there is a bill in
Congress to bring them into the Air Force.

In June of 1944,

the bill was defeated that would have
made us a part of the Army Air Corps.

And, you know,
you had other people in service.

I mean, the WAACS
had their women's corps.

The WAVES, the SPARS,
they were all recognized,

and they were all given
the benefits.

And the WASPS were not, even
though we were treated as military.

When we all knew that we were
going to be disbanded December 20th,

we decided to have
an organization.

Uh, the main purpose at that
time was to get information

about what kind of flying jobs
there were,

and get the information out
and then we would have reunions.

So this organization
continued on.

I was the president of the
organization from '75 to '78.

And, uh, Colonel Arnold,
General Arnold's son,

came to one of our reunions
and he said,

because he was a lobbyist
in Washington,

and he said,
"I will help you, girls,

to get recognition as veterans
of World War ll," which he did.

[calm music playing]

And, incidentally,
we were, in 2010...

we were issued the Congressional
Gold Medal given to us by Congress.

And this is a small replica
of the medal.

Other one,
if I put it on a chain,

I'd be walking like this,
it's big.

[man 8]As they go up to receive their
wings from the top woman pilot of them all,

the founder of the WASPS,
Ms. Jacqueline Cochran.

Each WASP, like other women
in other services,

has achieved no little thing.

She has gone into a man's world
because the men needed her,

gone through a tough ordeal
as just a girl

and come out a girl pilot
with a U-S. Army Air Force.

The one thing that pleases me
the most is that I got my wings.

That here's this gal
who came from nowhere

and she's flying an airplane
and she's earning her wings.

[tranquil music playing]

I wasn't nervous.
I was excited about it.

I had waited about six weeks,
um, to get my first top up

and I was in the front seat
and it was pretty awesome.

It's pretty awesome.

The Cobra flies pretty
aggressively, uh, nose down

when you're just traveling at about
130 knots about 90 degrees nose down.

So how you see the aircraft here
is straight and level

and it's, you know,
going through the sky like,

you know,
ready to attack, basically.

So it's awesome,
awesome feeling.

When I move
to my fleet helicopter,

which was the AH1 Whiskey SuperCobra
in the Marine Corps, just amazing.

When you see it in pictures,
it just, it doesn't look that big.

And I remember the first time
walking into the hangar

and I walked through the door and
this huge thing just loomed in front of me

and it was like, wow,
really speechless for a moment.

Wow,
I'm going to be flying that?

Then you learn to fly the Cobra.

Then you learn to fight the Cobra
or flying just becomes second nature.

Now, it's a machine in battle,
saving lives.

We had been out
for a little over an hour.

We were taken at a target that
was known to have munitions in it.

Uh, you know, bombs,
missiles, explosives,

C4s, uh, rocket,
anything and everything

the enemy could use to create
lEDs, improvised explosive devices.

Hour into the mission, we got a call
from one of the ground controllers.

And you could hear the
desperation in this guy's voice.

He said, "Viper, we have Marines
and soldiers pinned down

north of the cemetery,
and they need your help."

And, at that moment,

if you could have felt the acid
bomb explode in my stomach,

because we had been out
for a little over an hour.

And that meant we probably
maybe only had 20 minutes of fuel

left on the aircraft.

And on top of that, we only
had one missile left on our aircraft

because we'd been trying
to take out that target.

Gutsy move. Marines don't leave
Marines behind.

Next ground controller checks in
even more desperate than the first guy.

"Viper, we're pinned down.

We don't have any ammunition
to shoot back

because we don't even have any
green smoke to mark our position.

Let me know when you can see
the glint from my mirror."

When you are down
to signaling with a mirror,

the size of the palm
of your hand, you're in trouble.

As I scan down
into that cemetery,

looking for any sign
of our friendly forces,

I saw small glint come out,
"Contact, I see you."

Viper, do you see that road in
front of me running from east to west?

Follow it to the west.

You're going to see another road that runs
north and south. Follow it to the south.

You're going to see a building with a tower
sticking out of it with a blue dome at the top.

Call when you contact
that building.

Follow the road to the west.
Follow the road to the south.

Building, tower, blue dome.
Contact.

Break right!
Break right quickly!

I'm like, why?
Because now small arms fire

is coming out of that tower
trying to take us out of the sky.

We flew around.

I turned that selector switch
over to that very last missile.

We pop up over the ridge.

We are now searching,
scanning for our target.

Target in sight.
Aircraft pops up.

Finger on the trigger
waiting to come in range

and waiting for that magical phrase,
"You have permission to engage."

We got the phrase, I pulled the
trigger, "Missile away," I called out.

Nothing happened.

Marines and soldiers
on the ground,

inevitably, getting ready to go
into hand-to-hand combat

if we didn't come through.

We reset a couple of switches.

Turn the selector switch back over
to the last missile for one final try.

Pull the trigger, phew.
Missile comes off the rail.

Impacts the target. Pull off to
the right. Head back to base.

Check in with the duty officer
what happened with the mission.

"Ma'am, target was destroyed.

Marines and soldiers
will be coming home tonight."

It was absolutely amazing.

And an experience
I will never forget.

But that's not even it.
So now I'm back at home.

Back from the deployment.

And I'm standing in the hospital line
waiting for a routine doctor's appointment

in front of me,and I'm talking to the marine
"Hey, marine, how you doing? What's going on?"

He said, "Well, Ma'am, I have
some shrapnel in my left leg."

I said, "Whoa, shrapnel!

Were you recently deployed?"
He said, "Yes, Ma'am.

Iraq, [inaudible]."
I said, "Hey, I was in Iraq.

I was your Cobra air support."

He said, "Oh, Ma'am, you...
you fly Cobras?

We were in the cemetery.
We were pinned down.

A Cobra came in,
shot a missile."

I was like, wait a minute. That
sounds like a mission I was on.

Paired it up. Same mission.
Same aircraft. Same missile.

And we start hooping and hollering
right there in the middle of the hospital.

And then he just stopped. And he
said, "Ma'am, you saved my life."

[somber music playing]

[light music playing]

[Whitney] Just a few years ago,

Shaesta Waiz was a student at
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

Now the Afghanistan-born pilot is
flying this plane around the world

She's aiming to be
the youngest woman ever

to complete a solo
around the world flight.

She started here
in Daytona Beach, Florida,

and plans to make 34 stops
including those in Europe,

Egypt, India, Thailand,
and Australia.

Just three percent
of the world's pilots are women

and it's something Shaesta Waiz
and the industry are hoping to change.

She hopes it will inspire the next
generation of female pilots to soar.

Whitney Hearst, Al Jazeera.

When I told my family that I first
wanted to fly around the world,

it was a lot of,
"Great, I hope it works out."

You know, in the back
of their minds, they thought,

"Well, she's young.

This is an ambition that
every pilot must want to do,"

and they didn't really
take it serious.

When they saw other people
investing in me,

and this dream that I had, that's
when they realized "This is...

this is something
she is going to pursue."

I wanted to do something
for those girls,

for girls all over the world,
to show them that,

you know,
no matter where you come,

what background you are from,
you can excel, you can soar.

Now, an Afghan pilot hoping
to become the youngest woman

in history to complete
a solo run around the world

just took on the trans-Atlantic
leg of her journey.

[woman 3]
She wants to be an inspiration.

And, in Afghanistan, Shaesta
Waiz is welcomed as a hero.

She inspires Afghan girls to
have big dreams for their future

and to do something
about those dreams.

Like me, I want to be a pilot.

Waiz says she plans to have
events like this at most of her 30 stops

around the world
to encourage young people,

especially women and girls
to get involved in science,

technology, engineering,
and math.

If she completes the journey,

Waiz will become only the
eighth woman ever to fly solo

around the world
and the first Afghan.

Dreams Soar global flight consisted
of 145 days flying around the world,

25,000 nautical miles
across five continents.

I had the chance of visiting
22 different countries,

but most importantly it was me
meeting with 3,000 children face to face

and introducing them
to aviation and STEM.

My co-pilot was a 59-gallon
aluminum fuel tank,

uh, and my passengers,
all those backseats removed,

and it was a 125-gallon fuel tank
that sat right directly behind me.

Um, my seat was pretty stiff.
I couldn't incline my seat back.

It was just, you know, this... this
small area that I had to work with

and to get in
and outside of the aircraft,

the Bonanza
only has one side door

that's located
on the co-pilot's seat.

So I literally had to jump over my
co-pilot fuel tank to get into my seat

and, uh... and that's how I flew
around the world.

In total, I carried 300 gallons
of Avgas, aviation gasoline.

And, uh, my longest leg
where I needed that much fuel

was across the Pacific Ocean
from Hawaii to California.

It was 14.5 hours of being in the
same position over the Big Blue,

the big Pacific Ocean,
by myself.

There was a very thick,
overcast layer that came over

uh, and the sun
had set behind me.

So for about three hours, I was in
complete lFR weather conditions

where it felt like my aircraft
was not moving

uh, because I had no references
outside to look at.

So I just kept my eyes inside the
cockpit looking at my... my instruments.

And I just remember when
I saw that San Francisco coast,

I was just dancing on my seat,
like, yes, I see land.

[tranquil music playing]

An Afghan pilot has made history

by becoming the youngest woman
to complete a solo flight

around the world
in a single-engine aircraft.

Shaesta Waiz completed a
25,000-mile or 40,000-kilometer journey

after landing her Beechcraft Bonanza
A36 Aircraft in Florida, October 4th.

For United News International,
I'm Neela Eyuni.

I hope that you know that your legacy will
be measured in the service of every woman

who follows in the trails
that you've blazed.

Every woman who benefits from
your daring and determination.

Uh, it will be measured in the inspiration
that you provide to our daughters

and our granddaughters and to
our sons and our grandsons as well.

When they ask
what kind of jobs they can do,

they can look to women
like all of you

who've played just about
every kind of role imaginable.

They can look to Tammy Duckworth
who flew combat missions in Iraq

and lost both her legs when her
helicopter was hit by a grenade.

She went on to become a fearless
advocate for veterans and wounded warriors

and now serves as Assistant Secretary
of Public and Intergovernmental Affairs

at the Veterans Affairs
Department.

Thank you, Tammy.

[applause]

In Iraq, um, I was the
assistant operations officer.

My job was to coordinate missions for
our battalion task force of 44 aircraft.

And then I also begged
and pleaded

and wheedled my way into
getting to fly twice a week,

which was the best part
of my job.

It was important to me
to fly the missions

because I didn't want to be sending other
pilots out on missions outside the wire

and facing a danger
if I wasn't also doing it

but also because I
just loved to fly. [laughs]

And it was freedom
and it was exhilarating.

And, and the more I... the more
time I spent in the military flying,

the more I realized I'm a little bit of an
adrenaline junkie and a speed demon.

And... and, I got to do that,

and... and being with my guys and
the aircraft, um, was just the best,

most rewarding thing I have
ever done in my entire life.

And so I wanted to do that.

And, um, it was just a regular
mission on a regular day.

I'd been flying all day long,
um, and we got hit by the enemy.

This was about the timeframe of
the Second Battle for Fallujah.

So it was a pretty rough time and we were
outside a little ways away from Fallujah

and what got me was some insurgents
who had been flushed out of Fallujah.

And they, uh... they... they got
lucky and they shot us down.

Um, I was passing in and out

but we were able
to land the aircraft.

If I helped any, urn, uh,
then that's great.

But really the pilot in command,

um, Chief Warrant Officer Dan Milberg is the
true hero of the day, and got me to safety.

And then I spent 13 months in the hospital
recovering trying to get back to my unit.

I learned to take calculated
risks and not to be afraid of failure

when I went through the
military, that's the biggest thing.

Prior to the military, I probab...
I tended to be a perfectionist.

And I would not have taken
the risk that I didn't know,

I could definitely ace
and achieve,

uh, and going to flights, it was
the first thing I ever really did

that was, uh, I didn't know if I
was going to be able to do it.

But I knew I was going to try and I
knew that I knew how to work hard.

Uh, I was by no means the
best natural pilot in my class.

But I logged more simulator
hours than anybody in my class

because I would fly
the entire day.

And then I would go fly three
additional hours every night,

uh, and then just to make sure I
was as competitive as I could be,

and I knew how to work hard.

I actually ended up serving 13
more years after I lost my legs.

Um, when Senator Durbin
and Senator Obama came to me

and said, "We think
you should run for Congress,"

I had that foundation
of willingness to try

and knowing that no matter what
happened, I knew how to work hard.

And if I didn't achieve what I was trying
that would be okay and I didn't, I lost.

I lost that election.

It was devastating to me but I
knew I gave it everything that I had.

And so I was able to walk away
from that holding my head high,

um, which I think gave me the strength
to, six years later, try another run.

We are just as proud of all the
Thai-Americans who enrich our country.

In fact, I was mentioning to His Majesty,
that my friend, uh, Ladda Tammy Duckworth,

just became the first Thai-American
woman ever to be elected to our Congress.

And she's from my home state of
Illinois, so I'm especially proud of her.

[man 9] Kennedy Space Center
native, Nicole Stott who worked here,

processing shuttles for many
years before becoming an astronaut.

She is Mission Specialist 4.

[crowd cheering]

[man 10] This is a very
historical walkway.

It's the same path that the Apollo
astronauts took to go to the Moon.

And over the last 30 years,
there's been 133 odd shuttle crews

that walked out here
to catch this bus

for the exciting ride out
to the launch pad.

All systems are go.

About 90 seconds away from the
launch of Space Shuttle Discovery

on her final mission.

-[man 11] 20.
-[man 10] 20 seconds.

The sound suppression
water system

has been activated
protecting Discovery

and the launch pad
from acoustical energy wave.

[man 11] We'll have to go
for main engine start.

[man 10] Go for main engine
start. We have main engine start.

Two, one.

Booster ignition and
the final lift-off of Discovery.

A tribute to the dedication,
hard work,

and pride of America's
Space Shuttle team.

The shuttle
has cleared the tower.

[hissing]

[man 12]
This is Mission Control Houston.

The space shuttle
now rolled over on to its back

for they have been arrived
into orbit.

Discovery now making
one last reach for the stars.

[calm music playing]

I didn't get selected
that first time.

Uh, and I was upset.

I mean, I remember being upset
about it, but it wasn't surprising to me.

Um, and, but I didn't find it
discouraging either.

I found it like, okay,
you went through this.

And now, two years from now,

they will do another selection,
apply again.

But I also got really lucky
that first time

because they offered me a job
out at the Johnson Space Center

uh, flying on the shuttle training
aircraft as a flight engineer.

So I was going to get to sit
center seat in this airplane

that's modified like you wouldn't
want any airplane to be modified.

So it could, you know, approach
the runway like a space shuttle does

with an astronaut in the left
seat that you're training

and the instructor pilot
in the right seat

and I was going to get to be like the flight
engineer would be on the space shuttle.

And it was awesome.

It was exactly like the kinds of
things you would have to do

if you were flying
on a space shuttle.

And two years later, I interviewed
again and was selected.

I don't ever remember
being afraid.

I remember being
very respectful,

very, you know, acknowledging,

uh, the place I was,
what I was about to do.

Uh, but I also felt
very trained.

The fear for me was more about,
how... What my family was experiencing.

Because I know it's a lot more
difficult to watch somebody strapped

into a rocket to fly than it is
to be the person strapping in.

My first time flying,
my son was seven,

and the idea of something
happening to him on Earth

and not being able to get there.

That's where like, fear and maybe
a little of the stress of it was for me.

So I had the chance to talk
to a lot of people

who had flown before to watch
a lot of space shuttle launches.

So, in my mind, I had kind of convinced
myself that I knew what it would be like.

You just can't prepare
yourself for it.

And I did it a second time
thinking,

oh, I did that before, you know,
now I know what it's like.

Well, it's like you're doing it
all over again.

And as a shuttle crew,

you would get out there to the
pad a couple of hours before launch.

And you'd get all strapped in, you're,
you know, you're laying on your back

because the vehicle
is facing up.

And it really though for the crew wasn't
until about 20 minutes before launch

that you would actively
get involved with the countdown.

Six seconds is where all this
fuel and that big orange tank

would start flow into the three main
engines at the back of the shuttle.

And I always thought
that would be really dynamic.

I thought I'd be shaking
all over the place with that.

I thought it would be
really loud. But it wasn't.

It was more kind of a just like
muffly sound, uh, in the headset

and a little bit of vibration

and at zero, that's when those
two big white solid rocket boosters lit.

And that was the "Holy molly,
was I ever on a launch pad."

You know, you're felt like
you were kicked from behind.

It felt like, all of a sudden, three of
you are starting to crawl on top of you.

You're shaking like, I mean,
it... I've watched the cockpit video.

It does not show what,
I mean, it shows shaking

but it does not show
what you were feeling.

I mean, it felt like Jell-O
inside the way you're shaking.

Uh, the first minute and a half
of a shuttle launch,

all the crew can really do
is monitor,

you know, monitor their systems
on the display.

You know, about two and a half
minutes later, the booster separate.

And they do that not gracefully.
It's a big bang, a big flash.

[hissing]

[explodes]

And then,
all that vibration goes away

but you still feel like you have
three of you sitting on top of you.

And for another about six minutes,
um, then the tank separates.

Another big bang, big flash.

And then you go from shaking, weighted
down to just kind of like liberated.

Your, you know, from zero
to eight and a half minutes,

you've gone from being on that launch pad to
orbiting the planet at 17,500 miles an hour,

and just floating.

I mean, your arms float up.

Your pencil floats up
on the end of the tether.

Anything that's not tied down
is floating up around you

and you just absolutely can't
wait to get out of the seat

and see what it's going
to be like to... to fly,

I mean, literally fly yourself
in space.

That first view out the window is,
uh, actually I would say every view.

Every time you had the
opportunity to look out the window

it's...
it's just like launch was.

It's overwhelmingly impressive

and in different ways
than launch was for sure

but just in this kind of
like beautiful, unexpected,

going to surprise you every
time, glowing planet kind of way.

And it's another one of those things
where I looked at a lot of pictures.

I looked at a lot of video.

I talked to people about that,
you know, view out the window

but nothing prepares you
for what it really is like.

And it stays with you.

It's, I mean, I think about that
first flight in the airplane,

where, you know, where those
first flights in airplanes

where you really are appreciating,
uh, from a totally new perspective,

you know, who and where you are,
uh, by separating from it.

And... and, that's what I felt
like all the time in space was,

wow, I'm really, I am blessed with
this gift that's allowing me to consider,

you know, who I am and where I am
from in a whole new really special way.

The space station program to me

has been just the best example

of how we should be living and
working here on Spaceship Earth,

and how we should be
encouraging people to,

you know, acknowledge their role
as crew members on Spaceship Earth

and not just be passengers.

[man 13] Space Shuttle Discovery now on
final approach to the Kennedy Space Center.

Just more than 30 seconds to go.

[tranquil music playing]

Discovery here is down
and locked.

[inaudible] touchdown.

The nose of the shuttle being
rotated down toward the flight deck.

The parachute being deployed.

And nose gear touchdown and
the end of a historic journey.

And to the ship that has led
the way time and time again,

we say farewell Discovery.

[door closes]

It's just, I feel like
I'm floating and I'm free.

It's kind of
and it's relaxing sometimes.

It's not the same
as a real plane,

but the simulator
does have some benefits.

It's not like you have
to look book of flight.

I'm about to do a barrel, um,
through Tampa, Downtown Tampa.

The plane doesn't judge me on
how tiny I am or if I'm a girl.

[clacking]

Nobody in my family
was in aviation at all.

Just me.

Neither one of us
are from the aviation field.

So I'm like,
I'm not really sure here.

So, I mean, it was, you know,
internet search or anytime like I read,

"Oh, there's a, you know, an
air show over here at this field."

We go to the air show.

Uh, if there is a movie that
comes out, we watch the movie.

If there is a, um, book,
we read the book.

Uh, we've gone and listened to talks
from astronauts and such at museums.

Um, so we do
just about anything.

Most people don't get interested
in aviation.

They just think, "Oh, it's an
airplane. It gives you travel."

But it's more than that.

My friends think it's kind of weird
because none of them want to be a pilot.

None of them have
anything to do with it at all,

so, like, some of them just want to
play like video games or, heh, something.

And I want to fly airplanes not on
a video game, like a real airplane.

I don't think they're not
interested in aviation.

I don't think
they get the chance.

They think, "Oh, I'm a girl.
I can't do that."

She doesn't let anything
stop her.

She usually will go, huh.

I get this is difficult
but I can do it.

And she usually just takes a deep
breath and just keeps on going.

Aviation has given me
so many opportunities,

um, and it does to every pilot.

It's just amazing
where it has taken me.

I have had opportunities to go train the
Kenya Wildlife Service pilots in Kenya.

It's been incredibly rewarding
working with these pilots.

I've gotten to be really
good friends with them,

and I've traveled
all over Kenya.

The thing that I'm doing now
that I'm really, really excited about

and I just love to go
to work every day

and do is, um, our aerobatic
school here in St. Augustine, Florida.

I am finding that I love it more
than almost anything I've done.

It's just... It's been great.

[Nicole] I had the chance
to paint while I was in space.

And I painted a picture of a place that
I thought was really beautiful on Earth.

Uh, the whole experience
of watercolor painting in space

is a little bit different, you know,
with floating balls of water bursts

versus dip in your, you know,
your brush in a glass.

And when I was thinking
about retiring from NASA,

but wanting, really wanting to uniquely
share the spaceflight experience,

I kept coming back
to that painting.

And that one painting
has led to others,

you know, and I am doing art now
as a post-NASA person.

So about two months
before my commercial rating,

I started to ask
all the businesses

around Santa Monica Airport
if they were hiring.

Cirrus was just creating a job
called a regional sales coordinator

that moved airplanes
for new customers

and gave demo flights
to support the sale staff.

I got hired on my commercial
rating on my birthday

and I even launched a company,
um, called the Abingdon Company.

As I was doing this,

this job of moving all these airplanes
for Cirrus which I did for two years,

I really realized
that ferrying airplanes

and delivering them to customers
was just a passion of mine.

It's so much fun
to take a small airplane,

test your limits as a pilot
and expand your comfort zone

and fly it across
the Pacific Ocean.

I love aviation because
it's a whole different world.

It's some place
that's so like a family,

but it can take you anywhere
in the world.

And the more I'm in it, the more I
see that there's more people to know,

there's more things to see,
there's more experiences.

So becoming a pilot and working
as a pilot, especially an airline pilot,

you get to basically be wherever you
end up and explore the whole world.

You don't really see
borders anymore.

You just kind of see the whole
world as a place to explore.

Something that I do worry a lot
about with having a goal

or a dream that's this big
and this far out in the future,

is what if I end up
20 years down the road from here

and I wasn't an astronaut?

I don't regret it now.

I can't imagine that
I'll regret it in the future

because this pursuit of becoming
an astronaut, of going to Mars,

has led me to have so many
fantastic experiences in my life.

The idea that it might happen
makes it all worth it.

[tranquil music playing]

[Vernice] The important thing about what women
did early on in the whole aviation field,

in the industry
is they stood up,

you know, I will often say
a quote, you know, stand up

and be counted because you
never know who's counting on you.

They didn't know
I would be counting on them.

A lot of women, they wanted to
prove that, you know, they could do it,

that they had just as much right
to do it as the men did.

[Shaezta] Some of the barriers
that women faced early on in aviation

is really proving that they can be in
command and they can make decisions.

They can be around machines
and engines.

And I think, um,
it was a struggle back then

to change this perception
that the world had of women.

[Heather] And, you know, aviation at
that time was such a dangerous adventure.

Planes were new.
Technology was new.

You didn't know what was going to happen,
what was going to go wrong at any moment.

So for them to be willing to
take that risk on top of being told,

"Oh, you're a girl, you can't
be doing that kind of thing."

And it was really,
really phenomenal.

They had to really have this
amazing mental strength

to kind of put themselves
out there

with the unfortunate result of having to
be compared to their male counterparts.

There were men at the time
that were supporting of them.

Will Rogers, Wiley Post,
Amelia Earhart's husband,

of course, was very supportive
of women flying.

But there were a lot of people and not
just men that were against women flying.

There were other women
against women flying saying,

"They're making us look bad and they should
be home taking care of their households."

Even when Bessie Coleman wanted
to fly and she couldn't fly here

because she was black, right?
Because black folks weren't allowed to fly.

She learned French and went
to France and got her license.

They weren't going to take no
for an answer.

They wanted to try something.
They saw the adventure.

From Harry Quimby saying, she
wanted to fly across the English Channel

and Pancho Barnes to say,
"No, I'm not going to put a skirt on.

I'm not going to put
a dress on."

They didn't stop at anything.

Those were the true pioneers.

Those were the women who paved
a way for girls like me

to envision myself in aviation
such a male-dominated industry.

Some of the harassment
that they went through.

I mean, I can't, honestly, I can't even imagine
some of the things that they went through.

I am able to walk down the trail because they
blazed it and that's just pretty amazing.

Women have played an important
role in aviation and aerospace history.

Since the beginning, the early
fliers, even from Katharine Wright,

you know, through Amelia Earhart
and Bessie Coleman, you know,

they served as inspiration for the
women that were in the air races

who then served for inspiration for the
women who became the WASP in World War ll.

Every generation is laying the foundation
for the next generation to reach higher,

reach more goals and achieve,
you know, greater, greater dreams.

[Abigail] I mean,
they were groundbreakers.

They... they laid the path that the
rest of us are capable of walking now.

And if we didn't have the... the women
who were the early pioneers of aviation

then, I mean,
I wouldn't be flying today.

[dramatic music playing]

[upbeat music playing]

You work hard, Joe.
You are a good foreman.

Yes, women work
and do present problems, Joe.

It's tough, I know, but there are
thousands of others just like you,

all over the country
facing the same problems.

[Joe] Women scare me.
At least, they do in a factory.

Well, heh, maybe the women
are scared, too, Joe.

It's a totally unfamiliar world.

[quirky music playing]

You see, they're not naturally familiar
with mechanical principles nor machines.

It takes time
to make them feel at home.

But it can be done.

You talk like a man
who knows women.

We'll see, Joe. We'll see.

[upbeat music playing]

Some of the things I've heard and
misconceptions I've heard from people

about women in aviation is
that you can't have the family

and be a career woman, too.

Or how we... we don't know
how to fix a plane.

You know, the idea that
you're emasculating your husband

possibly if he is not interested
in flying but you are

because, obviously,
airplanes are made for men.

I mean, that's... There's so many
different social, um, etiquettes

that women are supposed
to abide by.

Even today,
if I don't get recognized

and I'm taxiing in somewhere in
an airplane with two people in it,

and I have a guy in the right
seat, and I'm in the left seat,

and I hear this
from other women all the time.

They always ask the man
in the plane for the fuel order.

So there's still this conception
out there and it happens all the time.

We still have a long way to go.

You know, I remember walking
into an FBO and in my flight suit

and they would ask me
if I was the flight attendant,

you know, like Air Force
on a C12 or something else

"No, I'm the pilot."
[laughs]

There was a student pilot on
the radios who was a young girl,

and she was struggling
and sure enough,

I heard someone
get on the radio and say,

"Another empty kitchen"
meaning here's another woman

who's attempting to fly rather
than being in the kitchen cooking.

I think, girls get away
from STEM in middle school

because they are told to look
a certain image

and stop
what they really want to be.

There's a societal stigma against
women being in STEM fields.

And it's this idea
that you can't both be feminine

and be in STEM fields.

The view was that we had to be
tough and we had to be macho

and, you know,
come across kind of tough

and I still get that
when I get out of the plane,

they're like,
"Oh, you're so small.

And, um, "Oh, you know, you
wear earrings," and things like that.

People expect, you know...
They have this stereotype of

what a professional athlete or a
professional pilot should look like.

And... and, so it was important
to me just to be who I was.

Well, the first reaction
every time is, "What?

You're in aviation?
How is that possible?"

And I was like,
"Well, what do you do?"

And that sometimes, and I love,
one of my friends is a pilot.

And so it's really funny
when we go places and we fly in

and they're looking for the guy
who flew us there,

and she's like, "No, I got it. I
got the keys to the plane. It's okay.

We made it."

It's not about being the strongest
but it is about flying smart.

Being smart.

Inside the cockpit
and outside the cockpit.

Being efficient, delegating,

uh, thinking about it different.

Not trying
to just strong-arm it,

but, okay, it's not
how to do more with less.

How do we do it differently?

[Nicole] The rocket ship
doesn't care if I am a boy or a girl.

You know,
the airplane doesn't care.

The robotic hand controllers
don't care.

And so from that sense, as long as
I can successfully learn the material

and complete the tasks,
that's how I thought about it.

Women make up, what is it,
51% of the population

and so if we're not encouraging
women to be in STEM fields

then we're losing out on 50% of the
brain power, on 50% of the creativity,

on 50% of the different
perspectives that we could be having.

The most successful work will
get done when you bring together,

you know, different experiences and different
backgrounds to, you know, to achieve something.

Whether you're a man or a woman,
you're black or white,

or you're a different religion,
none of that matters

when you get into the plane
here and there

like as long as you know
what you're doing.

I don't always
want to be the only one.

I think, us girls should
stand up for each other

and be as one and support
each other in the STEM field.

I think, it's really, really important for
there to be a mix in aviation, men and women,

because women bring different
outlook, a different approach to things.

The airplane might not know
the difference

but we still have some different
approaches to things

and so it's really, really important
that we share that with each other,

that we, that our contributions
are valued.

Well, I think that we just
need more women in all fields.

We as a nation can't be globally
competitive and we can't lead the economy,

our military cannot be strong
depending on just 50% of our population.

Women are a precious commodity
in this country just as the men are

and so why would we limit
ourselves to just half of our population?

If we truly
want to be competitive,

then we need everyone
to participate.

It's just important for us
to be visible.

So my little girl who is two years
old, sees all the opportunities

and thinks that she is
absolutely capable of,

just because
we don't see women there

doesn't mean
we weren't capable to do it.

Does it mean,
you know, we're not capable?

Absolutely not.

Now we need to make sure we're giving
each other the opportunities to get there.

And we're not going to wait for a
break. We have to make our break.

I would tell any girl that is
looking to get involved to aviation

that you can do whatever
you set your mind to.

Don't be afraid to go
be the only person there.

Don't be afraid to be the first,
you know.

You might be the first person
to do something and that's okay.

Research it. Talk to people.
Don't be afraid.

Don't let fear hold you back.

Why let someone else tell you
what you can do and what you can't do

or let someone else put an idea
into your head of what you can do.

You're in control of that.
Apply for it.

There's nothing that's
stopping you from doing it.

And... and, you may not like it.

I happen to love it and fall in
love with it, but you may not like it.

If you don't, then you walk
away, but it's on your terms.

It would be terrible if you
went out into the working world

and you had a job
that you just hated.

I mean, can you imagine
getting up in the morning

and going to something that
you really don't like to do?

Try different things, and
see whether you like doing that

and whether you would
like doing that every day.

You have to love what
you're doing to excel at it.

And, you know, the word passion
I think is way overused in this stuff.

I don't, you know, find your passion,
to me, is just such a pat thing to say.

I would say passion comes
when you find what you love.

It's something,
it's a result of that.

It's not something people
just wake up and have.

What I've seen in the
aviation world especially is...

there are so many opportunities
to take advantage of,

to just get introduced to it.

Places like this, I tell you what,
you walk through the door of,

you know, the office or the little
hangar of one of these airports,

and you seek out the people
that are working on airplanes

and are excited
and love it themselves.

They want to share it with you.

Aviation is an amazing community
and you don't have to be a pilot.

I have a lot of friends that are,
you know, airport managers,

engineers,
air traffic controllers.

Some advice I would give to a
girl who wants to be in aviation

or in space exploration
is to start working now,

join robotics, go online.

There are lots of opportunities
now for our generation.

You're not limited to the community
that are physically around you.

We have this capacity to have communication
around the world in... in seconds,

at the touch of a finger.

Use that. Go out there.

Find other people who have
similar passions, similar dreams

or maybe even people who've
already done what you want to do.

The one piece of advice that

I would absolutely have to give
is follow your gut,

not the conditioned gut,

not the one that
people taught you to do this,

taught you to do that, taught
you to... Your authentic self.

That... that voice
on the inside.

You know what's right and it takes
guts to do it, but you got to take action.

That... that voice is you
and you're doing it for you.

It's not the thing that you do
for anybody else.

And when people doubt you
and don't think you can do it,

just because they can't
doesn't mean you can't.

-You have your flight log?
-Yes.

[woman 5] Well, last time you taxied over
here to these, you're gonna do that again?

[Afton] Eh, probably.

[blows]

[woman 5]
Thanks for your help on this.

[man 14] See the color is
blue, right? Real light blue.

That's what we're looking for,
light blue and no water.

All right. I'm going to let you get in on the
left seat just like the pilot we did before.

Okay.

[Afton] There are those.
There's some more.

[man 14] I'm going to pull this
all the way up.

Is that enough room for you?
No, you need some more.

-All right.
-[Afton] That's close enough.

You know, and we've told
like, we've said this before,

and a lot of kids... People are like,
"Well, why would you let her fly now?

She's too young. She can't fly.

She can't get her license
until she's 16."

I said,
"Yes, and no. You're right."

Um, but,
Joel and I talked about it.

We said, you know, these kids that
become professional baseball players,

professional, let's just say
professional athletes.

They don't start playing
that sport when they're 18.

They've been playing that sport
since they were four, five, six years old.

So it's kind of the same thing.

She's just grooming herself
for that.

And if she's 18 and chooses
not to do this, that's fine, too.

Um, she could go on
a whole different direction.

I would be surprised by that.
But it would be fine.

I don't know.
I don't know what...

I think she'll always have
something to do with aviation.

Maybe she won't fly it, maybe
she'll manage the aviation.

Maybe she'll do the tower. Maybe...
There're so many different avenues.

It's not just flying a plane.

Uh, I don't know
what it's going to be.

I have no idea
but she might as well enjoy it.

She can do what she wants
and be what she wants.

And if she enjoys it... I mean, don't
they say like, the best thing in life

is you'll never work a day in
your life if you do what you love.

I'm not sure what type of pilot
I'd be when I grow up

because I like the idea of being a
firefighter pilot, kind of or a stunt pilot.

Astronaut might be cool.
But food, not really. [chuckles]

And I'm going to let you turn
the key and help me start it.

[plane engine revving]

-All right. You ready?
-Yes.

All right. Here we go. Woo-hoo.

There they are.
You can wave at them.

[laughs]

[man 14] But I don't see any
other airplanes on the screen

so I think we're the only ones
out here right now.

[laughs]

What is that?

-All this?
-Yes.

-That's just showing us the land.
-Yeah.

These are the lakes right by us.

The cars look like little toys,
don't they?

[laughs]
Yeah. Yes, they do.

All right. You want to pretend like we're
going to [inaudible], the big air show.

-Yeah.
-Okay.

We got to slow down
and go down lower.

Okay.

-See the road down there?
-Yeah.

This is how we do it. We
intercept... There's Highway 4.

-Okay.
-And we just flying along four.

Okay.

[upbeat music playing]

♪ You won't ever see us
Back away ♪

♪ Ti! we make the world see that
We ain't come to play ♪

♪ This is so lil girls dream
Bigger than they supposed to ♪

♪ And we get a fair share of pie
On the plate ♪

♪ I am her, I am her ♪

♪ I am her ♪

♪ Pardon this interruption
Of your daily status quo ♪

♪ We're here to disrupt ♪

♪ The arrangement
Of your daddy's show ♪

♪ This double extraordinary
Enigmatic flow is ♪

♪ Brought to you by Audre
And Bell and Maya Angelou ♪

♪ Hand 'em over
We need the titles, receipts ♪

♪ The empire replete
With the power to speak ♪

♪ And, no
This is not a request ♪

♪ Hundreds of years of forced
Silence got a lot on my chest ♪

♪ And we don't need
Your approval ♪

I On our style of address ♪

♪ Or style of the dress
I'll rock a head wrap ♪

♪ And bulletproof vest a'

♪ And start my lyrical sermon
With this ♪

♪ Mother you guessed it ♪

♪ Just so we're clear on who
Governs reproductive requests ♪

♪ It's not up to anyone's
Opinion on how I protect it ♪

♪ I'm part of collectives from
Mali to Mecca getting bigger ♪

♪ And our premiere be major
No longer hidden figures ♪

♪ We out to level the playing
Field for them young queens ♪

♪ Coming for that wage gap ♪

♪ Til we recoup them
Hidden figures ♪

I In '97, million women marched
And I was with it ♪

♪ In 2017, the same
The establishment livid ♪

♪ If this a man's world we came
Here to grab the equivalents ♪

♪ And watch the future
Reimagined ♪

♪ By the hand of the feminine ♪

I You won't ever
See us back away ♪

♪ Ti! we make the world see that
We ain't come to play ♪

♪ This is so lil girls dream
Bigger than they supposed to ♪

♪ And we get a fair share of pie
On the plate ♪

♪ I am her, I am her ♪

♪ You won't ever see us
Back away ♪

♪ Ti! we make the world see that
We ain't come to play ♪

♪ This is so lil girls dream
Bigger than they supposed to ♪

♪ And we get a fair share of pie
On the plate ♪

♪ I am her, I am her ♪

♪ I am her ♪