You've seen the film (not)! Why?
Because their history was erased!
Meet the Curtiss-Wright Aeronautical Engineering Cadettes, 918 brave and bright young women who were trained in WWII to design airplanes. Their work helped salvage the Curtiss-Wright Airplane Company from its own engineering deficiencies in a time of national crisis. But they are WWII's great unsung heroines because the records of their participation in the wartime aviation industry were mysteriously "lost." Their story has never been told - until now.
"Flying Into Yesterday tracks an amazing story that was deliberately cut from American history because women weren't supposed to be aeronautical engineers - but they were, in World War II! Written by the daughter of one of those women, this remarkable book is like a treasure hunt and we get to join in the chase."
- MOLLIE GREGORY (author, Guts and Grace: The Untold Story of Stuntwomen in the Movies)
AUTHOR TOUR SCHEDULE 2012
CHECK BACK FOR COMPLETE TOUR DETAILS
Click here for Photos from Ohio & New York Book Tour - Fall 2011
Available for talks and signings/readings.
Call (575) 751-7230 now to book for Spring 2012.
"Flying Into Yesterday is a long-overdue tribute to a magnificent group of patriotic women who helped win World War II. This powerful story of the accomplishments of the Curtiss-Wright Cadettes, told here with accuracy and affection, should encourage modern women to enter the world where they are vitally needed: aero and space engineering. The author has done a signal service to those who participated in the past - and to those who will take the book's message and participate in the future."
- WALTER BOYNE, Colonel USAF (retired), author, aviation historian,
founder of the National Air & Space Museum
ADVANCE PRAISE for Flying Into Yesterday
As a senior in aeronautical engineering at Purdue, I taught aerodynamics to the Cadette Class of 1944. A few faculty members absolutely refused to teach "girls," but I found that among the Cadettes there was a normal distribution of those just "getting by" and those who were so capable at complex engineering details they could have pursued careers as graduate engineers. The Cadettes' contributions to the development of the Navy's Helldiver airplane - and their being let go at the conclusion of the war with no record or credit for having been there - is an important story. Jean-Vi's monumental effort to find, throughout the country, information that was largely suppressed, "unavailable," and in some cases destroyed, reads like a personal odyssey. I congratulate her on restoring this missing piece in the history of women in aviation.
- George Palmer (professor emeritus, aeronautical engineering, Purdue University)
Author Jean-Vi Lenthe has uncovered a little-known gem of women's aviation history. As she says in the foreword: "More than 900 Cadette engineers labored six days a week in five different Curtiss-Wright plants, including the company's research lab in Buffalo, New York. But at the end of the war, company management treated their vital contributions as a mere wartime aberration. Forgotten were all the promises of promoting the Cadettes and helping them upgrade to full 'graduate engineer' status..." Exhaustively researched and thoroughly documented, Lenthe, whose mother was one of the 900, honors all the unkept promises and unsung work. Poignant surprises await you in this long overdue history.
- Henry M. Holden (aviation historian/author, History Channel narrator,
founder of Women in Aviation Resource Center)
Jean-Vi has captured the facts and flavor of my experience as a Curtiss-Wright Cadette during WWII. Her remarkable research efforts have paid off with a fascinating story of the history I was a part of but did not fully appreciate until this book. Flying Into Yesterday would be of interest to anyone interested in history.
- Nova Anderson Weller (mechanical engineer, retired, Battelle Memorial Institute, Columbus, Ohio;
Cadette Class of 1945, Purdue University)
Aviation History magazine glamorizes test pilots and they talk about airplanes, but hardly ever talk about people other than the pilots. As Flying Into Yesterday confirms, the work of the Cadettes was truly critical to the war effort because there was a shortage of engineers, who were needed to keep up with the demands of the military. I worked many hours on the SB2C aircraft, on the original design and on "change requests" that came from the Navy as soon as combat situations showed a need for changes in the aircraft components, and believe me, there were many requests. The arrival of the Cadettes may not have been revolutionary but was of tremendous help to a weary and depleted engineering department.
- Les Hall (aeronautical engineer, retired; assistant project engineer, SB2C Helldiver, 1942-44)
