Dora Dougherty Strother Dora Jean Dougherty Strother ( born November 27 , 1921 ) , also Dora Dougherty McKeown or Dora Strother McKeown , is best known as a Woman Airforce Service Pilots ( WASP ) and B - 29 Superfortress demonstration pilot . She is a former U . S . military pilot , human factors engineer with Bell Aircraft , instructor at the University of Illinois and helicopter test pilot for Bell Aircraft . Strother holds a PhD in Aviation Education ( NYU , 1955 ) . She is recipient of the Amelia Earhart Award for academic achievement and is an inductee in the Military Aviation Hall of Fame . Strother is a 1987 inductee to the Texas Women ' s Hall of Fame . Strother is also a Whirly - Girl or a member of the International Women Helicopter Pilots , a member organization of the Helicopter Association International . Career as a WASP . In 1940 , Strother earned her pilot certificate via the Civilian Pilot Training Program , sponsored by the Civil Aeronautics Authority . She then became the sixth woman in the United States to earn an airline transport pilot license . The demand for male pilots in World War II opened doors for pilot training programs for women . Initially , two separate training programs were run : the Women ' s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron ( WAFS ) was headed by Nancy Harkness Love and the 319th Women ' s Flying Training Detachment ( WFTD ) organized by Jacqueline Cochran out of Houston . The programs were merged in 1943 as WASP and helmed by Cochran . Dora Jean Dougherty Strother volunteered and was selected in the third class of WASP program ( 43 - 3 ) . Strother ' s piloting jobs in the Women ’ s Air Force Service Pilots ( WASP ) program included flight training , target towing for antiaircraft gunnery , ferrying , and radio control piloting . WASPS like Strother flew almost every type of plane used by Army Air Forces such as liaison , training , and cargo aircraft . They also flew and trained other pilots to fly fighters , dive bombers , attack bombers , and very heavy bombers like the B - 29 . In 1944 , Strother and fellow WASP Dorothea Johnson Moorman were selected by Lt . Col . Paul W . Tibbets to learn to fly the Boeing B - 29 Superfortress heavy bomber . The plane was considered dangerous and cumbersome , and Tibbets believed the two women could learn to fly the four - engine plane to showcase its reliability . After four days of flight training , Strother and Moorman flew the B - 29 from Birmingham , Alabama , to Clovis , New Mexico . There they took male crews on flights and further trained them , demonstrating the feasibility of flying the B - 29 . Strother was honorably discharged from the U . S . Air Force on 20 December 1944 , having commanded 23 different aircraft . Teaching , engineering , and helicopters . After the WASP service was disbanded , Strother began work at the University of Illinois and taught flight courses ; these included primary , advanced , and instrument flight courses . Before that , from 1944 to 1949 , she worked in airfields across the United States , teaching pilots and ferrying aircraft . At the start of the 1950s , Strother studied Aviation Education , earning her doctorate from New York University in 1955 . She resumed her teaching at the University of Illinois in the role of Chief Research Pilot through 1957 . Starting in 1958 , Strother worked for Bell Aircraft as a human factors engineer , where she designed helicopter cockpits . Though a highly skilled fixed - wing pilot , Strother developed expertise in helicopter flight and became a test pilot for Bell Helicopter company . In thirty - four hours of helicopter flight time , she set two world records for altitude ( 19 , 406 feet ) and distance ( straight line 404 . 36 miles ) . The record for altitude was set in a Bell 47G - 3 helicopter . Strother held these rotorcraft records from 1961 to 1966 . Legacy . Following her retirement from Bell Helicopter as Chief of Human Factors Engineering and Cockpit Arrangement , she began serving as a member of the U . S . Army Science Board . Strother helped build the reputation of the human factor engineering design group at Bell Helicopter / Textron over the course of 28 years at the company . She has been recognized for her work by three technical professional societies ; Strother was elected as fellow in the American Psychological Association , the American Helicopter Society , and the Human Factors Society of America . Strother ’ s ( 43 - W - 3 ) testimony helped to legally validate WASP service as active duty military service , allowing women pilots from World War II to gain veteran ’ s status and benefits . On Thanksgiving Day , 23 November 1977 , President Jimmy Carter signed WASP militarization into law with PL 95 - 202 , which was applied to all WASP participants .