Evelyn Sharp
Encyclopedia
Evelyn Genevieve "Sharpie" Sharp (1919 - 1944) was an American
aviator
.
.
Evelyn became an airplane instructor at age 20; over 350 men learned to fly under her instruction. She was also the first American female airmail pilot.
Sharp was one of the original Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) pilots with over 3,000 flight hours logged when she joined. By then transferred into the Women Airforce Service Pilots
(WASP), Evelyn Sharp died on April 3, 1944, near Middleton, Pennsylvania, in the crash of a P-38 Lightning
. She was twenty-four years old.
In 1992, Sharp was inducted into the Nebraska Aviation Hall of Fame.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
aviator
Aviator
An aviator is a person who flies an aircraft. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887, as a variation of 'aviation', from the Latin avis , coined in 1863 by G. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne...
.
Early life
Born Lois Genevieve Crouse on October 20, 1919 in Melstone, Montana, she was adopted by John and Mary Sharp two months later. Her family later moved to Ord, Nebraska where she learned to fly at age fourteen and first flew solo at sixteen. At eighteen she received her commercial pilot's license and acquired her first airplane with the help of local businessmen. Sharp repaid them with the money earned from barnstormingBarnstorming
Barnstorming was a popular form of entertainment in the 1920s in which stunt pilots would perform tricks with airplanes, either individually or in groups called a flying circus. Barnstorming was the first major form of civil aviation in the history of flight...
.
Evelyn became an airplane instructor at age 20; over 350 men learned to fly under her instruction. She was also the first American female airmail pilot.
World War II
Women Airforce Service Pilots
The Women Airforce Service Pilots and its predecessor groups the Women's Flying Training Detachment and the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron were pioneering organizations of civilian female pilots employed to fly military aircraft under the direction of the United States Army Air Forces...
(WASP), Evelyn Sharp died on April 3, 1944, near Middleton, Pennsylvania, in the crash of a P-38 Lightning
P-38 Lightning
The Lockheed P-38 Lightning was a World War II American fighter aircraft built by Lockheed. Developed to a United States Army Air Corps requirement, the P-38 had distinctive twin booms and a single, central nacelle containing the cockpit and armament...
. She was twenty-four years old.
Legacy
At the time of her death she was a squadron commander, only three flights from her fifth rating, the highest certificate then available to women. She is buried in Ord, Nebraska where a public airfield, the Evelyn Field Airport, has been named in her honor.In 1992, Sharp was inducted into the Nebraska Aviation Hall of Fame.