WAI Names 2017 Pioneer Hall of Fame Inductees

Women in Aviation International (WAI), an organization dedicated to the encouragement and advancement of women in all aviation career fields and interests, just announced its 2017 inductees to the International Pioneer Hall of Fame.

Inductees include the U.S. Navy’s first class of eight women aviators, who entered training in January 1973. Six women in that first group completed training and earned the U.S. Navy’s Wings of Gold to become naval aviators.

Also named to the Hall of Fame was U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. Stayce Harris, the highest-ranking African-American woman military pilot in all of the U.S. armed forces. Harris currently serves as the assistant vice chief of staff and director of Air Staff, Headquarters U.S. Air Force in Washington, DC. As a pilot, Harris flew the C-130H, KC-135R, C-141 B/C, T-38 and the T-37.

The final inductee is the late Elizabeth “Betty” Everts Greene, a member of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP). She learned to fly in 1936 and flew with the WASPs during World War II before founding the Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF). The MAF today operates 135 aircraft in 33 different countries, providing medical care, disaster relief and community development support.

All inductees will be honored on March 4, 2017, at the closing banquet of the WAI’s 28th annual International Women in Aviation conference to be held at Disney’s Coronado Spring Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.