{"id":25259732,"date":"2026-09-28T11:16:50","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T09:16:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/nancy-harkness-love-wafs-founder-wasp-ferry-pilots-b-17\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T11:17:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T09:17:14","slug":"nancy-harkness-love-wafs-founder-wasp-ferry-pilots-b-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/de\/nancy-harkness-love-wafs-founder-wasp-ferry-pilots-b-17\/","title":{"rendered":"Nancy Harkness Love: The Pilot Who Founded the WAFS"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\r\n<p>In early 1942, a woman in Washington, D.C. commuted to her office in Baltimore every day in her own aeroplane. Her husband mentioned it to his boss, Colonel William H. Tunner, who was scouring the country for pilots to deliver new aircraft from factories to air bases. Tunner had a conversation with her. By September that year, Nancy Harkness Love was commanding a new squadron of women ferry pilots for the US Army Air Forces.<\/p>\r\n<p>The Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron, the WAFS, was her idea, her recruiting and her command. Its pilots went on to fly almost every type in the Army's inventory, and Love herself became one of the first women to fly the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/b-17-flying-fortress\/\">B-17 Flying Fortress<\/a>. Yet outside aviation circles, her name is far less known than it should be.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f4f6fa;border:1px solid #e2e7ee;padding:18px 22px;margin:22px 0 28px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 10px;font-weight:700;color:#0d1117;font-size:17px\">Quick Facts<\/p><ul style=\"margin:0;padding-left:20px;line-height:1.75\"><li><strong>Born:<\/strong> 14 February 1914, Houghton, Michigan<\/li><li><strong>First licence:<\/strong> At 16, after a month of lessons<\/li><li><strong>Created:<\/strong> Women\u2019s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS), 1942<\/li><li><strong>First unit:<\/strong> 28 experienced women pilots, flying from New Castle Army Air Base, Delaware<\/li><li><strong>Later role:<\/strong> Executive for all ferrying operations of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) from August 1943<\/li><li><strong>Aircraft:<\/strong> Certified on 19 military types, including the B-17, B-25, C-54 and P-51<\/li><li><strong>Honours:<\/strong> Air Medal; lieutenant colonel, US Air Force Reserve, 1948; National Aviation Hall of Fame, 2005<\/li><li><strong>Died:<\/strong> 22 October 1976, aged 62<\/li><\/ul><\/div>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The Flying Freshman<\/h2>\r\n<p>Hannah Lincoln Harkness, born in Houghton, Michigan in 1914, took her first flight at 16 and had her licence within a month. At Vassar she earned her commercial licence and made money flying fellow students around, picking up the nickname \"The Flying Freshman.\" In the 1930s she flew for a Boston aviation company she ran with her husband, Robert Love, raced in the National Air Races, and worked as a test pilot, including on the tricycle landing gear that later became standard on most aircraft.<\/p>\r\n<p>In May 1940, with war already raging in Europe, she wrote to Lieutenant Colonel Robert Olds at Air Corps headquarters. She had found 49 excellent women pilots, each with more than 1,000 hours, and proposed that they ferry aircraft from factories to bases. The Army's commanding general, Hap Arnold, turned the plan down.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/35wCkn-6yUU\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Twenty-Eight Originals<\/h2>\r\n<p>Two years later the need was impossible to ignore. Tunner asked Love to write up a proposal for a women's ferrying unit. When his request to commission the women into the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps was refused, he made her Executive of Women Pilots on his staff. Within months she had recruited the pilots who became known as \"the Originals,\" and from September 1942 they flew from New Castle Army Air Field in Delaware.<\/p>\r\n<p>Love set strict rules from day one. She knew the programme would be judged harshly, and that any hint of scandal could end it.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #1565c0;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7;display:flex;gap:20px;align-items:flex-start\"><div><em>&ldquo;If the WAFS are to succeed, our personal conduct must be above reproach\u2026 There cannot be the faintest breath of scandal.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Nancy Harkness Love<\/strong> &mdash; code of conduct for the WAFS, as quoted by the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n<p>Public support came from the very top. In her newspaper column My Day on 1 September 1942, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt argued that this was not a time for women to be patient.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #d32f2f;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7;display:flex;gap:20px;align-items:flex-start\"><div><em>&ldquo;Women pilots, in this particular case, are a weapon waiting to be used.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Eleanor Roosevelt<\/strong> &mdash; My Day, 1 September 1942 (via the National WASP WWII Museum)<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/09\/nancy-love-betty-gillies-b-17-queen-bee.jpg\" alt=\"Nancy Love and Betty Gillies, the first women to fly the B-17\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">Nancy Love (left) and Betty Gillies, the first women to fly the Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress. In September 1943 they set out to ferry the B-17 Queen Bee to England. Photo: U.S. Army Air Forces, public domain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Bombers, Fighters and a Cancelled Crossing<\/h2>\r\n<p>By June 1943 Love commanded four WAFS squadrons, at Love Field in Texas, New Castle, Romulus in Michigan and Long Beach in California. On 5 August 1943 the WAFS merged with Jacqueline Cochran's training organisation to form the Women Airforce Service Pilots, the WASP, and Love became executive for all its ferrying operations.<\/p>\r\n<p>She was certified on 19 military aircraft. She was among the first women to fly the Douglas C-54 Skymaster and the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/b-25-mitchell\/\">B-25 Mitchell<\/a>, checked out on the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/p-51-mustang\/\">P-51 Mustang<\/a>, and on 15 August 1943 she and Betty Gillies qualified as first pilots on the B-17. On 2 September they set off from Cincinnati to deliver a B-17F to England. The mission was cancelled before they left Goose Bay, Labrador.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/TUkT6we1FTc\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/09\/wasp-pilots-b-17-pistol-packin-mama-lockbourne.jpg\" alt=\"WASP pilots walking away from the B-17 Pistol Packin\u2019 Mama\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">Four WASP pilots leaving the B-17 Pistol Packin\u2019 Mama at the four-engine school at Lockbourne Army Air Field, Ohio. Photo: U.S. Air Force, public domain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Recognition That Came Late<\/h2>\r\n<p>The WASP was disbanded in December 1944. At the end of the war, Nancy and Robert Love were decorated at the same time: he with the Distinguished Service Medal, she with the Air Medal for her operational leadership in training and assigning more than 300 women pilots to fly advanced military aircraft. In 1948 she was made a lieutenant colonel in the new US Air Force Reserve.<\/p>\r\n<p>Love died of cancer in 1976 at the age of 62, before Congress finally granted WASP pilots recognition as military veterans. She was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 2005, and a statue of her stands at New Castle County Airport in Delaware, where the Originals first flew.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/n_vcEkelV3I\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n<p><em>Sources: Wikipedia (Nancy Harkness Love; Betty Gillies); National Museum of the U.S. Air Force biography; National WASP WWII Museum; U.S. Air Force and USAAF image records.<\/em><\/p>\r\n\r\n<style>.mfq{margin:34px 0 8px}.mfq h2{font:26px\/1.3 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117;padding-top:22px;margin:0 0 6px}.mfq .qa details{border-top:1px solid #5C91FF;margin:0;padding:0}.mfq .qa details:last-of-type{border-bottom:1px solid #e2e7ee}.mfq .qa summary{cursor:pointer;list-style:none;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;gap:16px;padding:22px 26px;font:18px\/1.7 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117}.mfq .qa summary::-webkit-details-marker{display:none}.mfq .qa summary::after{content:\"+\";font:24px Helvetica,sans-serif;color:#3568e0;flex:0 0 auto}.mfq .qa details[open] summary::after{content:\"\\2013\"}.mfq .qa details:hover summary{color:#3568e0}.mfq .qa .a{font:16px\/1.7 \"Gilroy regular\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#454e5e;padding:0 26px 24px}.mfq .qa .a a{color:#3568e0}@media(max-width:680px){.mfq .qa summary{padding:18px 14px;font-size:17px}.mfq .qa .a{padding:0 14px 20px}}<\/style>\r\n\r\n\r\n<section class=\"mfq\"><h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2><div class=\"qa\"><details open><summary>Who was Nancy Harkness Love?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Nancy Harkness Love (1914\u20131976) was an American pilot who created and commanded the Women\u2019s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) in 1942 and later ran all ferrying operations of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) during the Second World War.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>What was the WAFS?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The Women\u2019s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron was a unit of experienced civilian women pilots set up in 1942 to deliver aircraft from factories to military bases for the US Army Air Forces\u2019 Ferrying Command. It began flying from New Castle Army Air Field, Delaware, in September 1942 under Nancy Love.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>What aircraft did Nancy Harkness Love fly?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Nancy Love was certified on 19 military aircraft. She was among the first women to fly the Douglas C-54 Skymaster and North American B-25 Mitchell, was checked out on the P-51 Mustang, and with Betty Gillies became the first woman to fly the Boeing B-17.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>How did the WAFS become the WASP?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">On 5 August 1943 Nancy Love\u2019s WAFS merged with Jacqueline Cochran\u2019s Women\u2019s Flying Training Detachment to form the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP). Love became executive for all WASP ferrying operations until the WASP was disbanded in December 1944.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Did Nancy Love fly a B-17 across the Atlantic?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">No. On 2 September 1943 Nancy Love and Betty Gillies set out from Cincinnati to deliver a B-17F to England, but the mission was cancelled before the aircraft left Goose Bay, Labrador.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>How was Nancy Harkness Love honoured?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Nancy Love received the Air Medal after the war, became a lieutenant colonel in the US Air Force Reserve in 1948 and was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 2005. A statue of her stands at New Castle County Airport in Delaware.<\/div><\/details><\/div><\/section>\r\n\r\n\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"FAQPage\",\"mainEntity\":[{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Who was Nancy Harkness Love?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Nancy Harkness Love (1914\u20131976) was an American pilot who created and commanded the Women\u2019s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS) in 1942 and later ran all ferrying operations of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) during the Second World War.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What was the WAFS?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"The Women\u2019s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron was a unit of experienced civilian women pilots set up in 1942 to deliver aircraft from factories to military bases for the US Army Air Forces\u2019 Ferrying Command. 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A statue of her stands at New Castle County Airport in Delaware.\"}}]}<\/script><div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Related Posts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/cornelia-fort-pearl-harbor-wafs-first-woman-pilot-killed\/\">Cornelia Fort: Airborne Over Pearl Harbor, Killed Ferrying a Trainer<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/jacqueline-cochran-she-founded-the-wasps-then-broke-the-sound-barrier\/\">Jacqueline Cochran: She Founded the WASPs, Then Broke the Sound Barrier<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/nicole-malachowski-first-woman-thunderbirds-pilot-f-15e\/\">Nicole Malachowski: The First Woman to Fly With the Thunderbirds<\/a><\/p><\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nancy Harkness Love created the Women\u2019s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron in 1942, flew the B-17, B-25 and P-51, and led the WASP ferry pilots of World War II.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":25259457,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[665,666],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25259732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aviation-world","category-history-and-legends"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Nancy Harkness Love: The Pilot Who Founded the WAFS | MiGFlug<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Nancy Harkness Love founded the Women&#039;s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron in 1942, flew the B-17 and P-51 and led the WASP ferry pilots of World War II.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, 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