Ann Shaw Carter

Ann Shaw Carter (December 5, 1922 – September 26, 2005) was an American pilot who was the first female commercial helicopter pilot and the second woman to fly a helicopter, after the German pilot, Hanna Reitsch.

Ann Shaw in 1944, training as a WASP

Carter was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on December 5, 1922, and moved to Fairfield, Connecticut, as a child.[1] During World War II, she studied aircraft building in Bridgeport, Connecticut. She then got a job with Chance-Vought as a factory riveter, assembling F4U Corsair aircraft, to finance flying lessons.[1][2] She joined the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) in 1944, training in Texas, and was a member of the last graduating set before the program was discontinued that year.[1][2][3]

A Bell 47B, one of the helicopter models that Shaw Carter flew

After the end of the war, she was the first American woman to learn to pilot a helicopter, receiving her commercial helicopter license on June 12, 1947, more than nine years after Hannah Reitsch's demonstration flight in February 1938.[3][4] She became a pilot with the Metropolitan Aviation Corporation, piloting New York City sightseeing trips and charter flights.[1][2][5] She is documented as the world's first female commercial helicopter pilot.[1][2][3][5][6] She flew Bell Helicopters, including a Bell 47B.[2][6] In 1955, she was one of the six founding members of the Whirly-Girls, which dubbed her "Whirly Girl #2";[5][7] she was one of several society members to meet President John F. Kennedy in a visit to the White House in 1961.[8] One of the helicopters that she flew was preserved by the American Helicopter Museum in West Chester, Pennsylvania.[9] Her aviation career was cut short by polio towards the end of the 1950s.[1][2]

Later life

In later life, Carter continued to live in Fairfield, Connecticut. She was married to Edward Carter (died 2004); the couple had three children.[10][1] She was active in local politics and in the early 1990s, was one of the founders of Friends of Open Space, a Fairfield organization that aimed to conserve open land for community use.[1] In 1999, she and her husband gave 2.2 acres of land to the Connecticut branch of the National Audubon Society, a conservation charity, to facilitate access to a Fairfield wildlife sanctuary.[1][2]

Carter died on September 26, 2005, at the age of 83, after a car accident.[10][1]

References
  1. Erin Lynch (September 28, 2005), "A True Pioneer: WASP Ann Shaw Carter (44-W-10) aka Whirly Girl #2", Fairfield Citizen-News, retrieved December 26, 2020
  2. Wonder Women of Fairfield: Ann Shaw Carter: Helicopter Pilot 1922–2005, Fairfield Museum, retrieved December 28, 2020
  3. "Ann Shaw Carter (WG #2) in a helicopter", Woman's collection, Texas Woman's University, retrieved December 26, 2020
  4. Katherine S. Gray (2007), Flying in formation: Creating a place for women in aviation through the Ninety-Nines, the Women Airforce Service Pilots, and the Whirly-Girls (MA thesis), Miami University, Ohio, retrieved December 15, 2022
  5. History, Whirly-Girls, retrieved December 26, 2020
  6. Joseph J. Devanney (March 29, 2008), "The Whirly Girls, Hoverings Host a Wide-Ranging Group of Helicopter Enthusiasts", Woman Pilot
  7. About us, Whirly-Girls, archived from the original on January 12, 2017, retrieved December 26, 2020
  8. "Whirly-Girls with President Kennedy in the White House Rose Garden", Woman's Collection, Texas Woman's University, retrieved December 29, 2020
  9. "Ann Shaw Carter's (WG #2) helicopter being towed to the American Helicopter Museum", Woman's Collection, Texas Woman's University, retrieved December 29, 2020
  10. Ann (Andrea) Shaw Carter, 44-W-10, Wings Across America, 2005, retrieved December 28, 2020
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