Fly Girls

How Five Daring Women Defied All Odds and Made Aviation History

By: Keith O'Brien

Narrated by: Erin Bennett

Between the world wars, no sport was more popular, or more dangerous, than airplane racing. Thousands of fans flocked to multi-day events, and cities vied with one another to host them. The pilots themselves were hailed as dashing heroes who cheerfully stared death in the face. Well, the men were hailed. Female pilots were more often ridiculed than praised for what the press portrayed as silly efforts to horn in on a manly, and deadly, pursuit.

Fly Girls recounts how a cadre of women banded together to break the original glass ceiling: the entrenched prejudice that conspired to keep them out of the sky.

O'Brien weaves together the stories of five remarkable women: Florence Klingensmith, a high school dropout who worked for a dry cleaner in Fargo, North Dakota; Ruth Elder, an Alabama divorcee; Amelia Earhart, the most famous, but not necessarily the most skilled; Ruth Nichols, who chafed at the constraints of her blue blood family's expectations; and Louise Thaden, the mother of two young kids who got her start selling coal in Wichita. Together, they fought for the chance to race against the men - and in 1936 one of them would triumph in the toughest race of all.

©2018 Keith O'Brien (P)2018 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Good info but rather long

struggled to find, too much extraneous info. that got on my nerves. still good info. wished there was more about AE.

A GREAT LISTEN FOR INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY !

Sometimes we need to be reminded of how far women have come in the past 100 years in the fields of science and aviation !
Peggy Whitten , the U.S.A. astronaut with the most time in space for a woman is an example of flying skills that began with our women flyers of the 1920's and forward. Thanks to them we have women pilots not violets !
Kieth O' Brien did an amazing job of tracking the women pilot's personal lives and their accomplishments , especially those first grueling air races and endurance contests. Wow ! I learned a lot and appreciate them more than ever.

Fascinating

What a story! What girls! An excellent audiobook. This thrilling story of the female aviation pioneers is full of details, yet it never loses momentum. Highly recommended.

Wonderful!

A very inspirational and moving story of the early women aviators and their lives. Thanks, Audible for the recommendation!

Fly Girls review

Loved this book as it highlighted brave women and their contribution to the world of flight and aetonautics

Fly Girls

Beautifully written history of famous women in flight. Perfect narrator for this book. Thank you Audible!

Excellent history of woman in aviation

It was a little slow to get into but very interesting so stick with it as you learn not only about the woman that contributed to aviation advancement and endured harassment to be taken seriously. It also provided good historical perspective of what was going on in the US.

well written and very interesting

a few too many characters to remember but each one was a great story. the writer made it clear why each subject was important.
the narrator added to the drama with her way of using her voice to envelop these women in empathy and admiration. She did a great job of making the stories come alive.

Excellent — really enjoyed it

Well researched and thoughtfully written. Just enough information on individual pilots. Satisfied the desire for historic facts. Will probably listen to it again and definitely recommend to friends.

Great Read!

Narration was wonderful! Story line and data researched was incredible! Easy to pick up where you left off.