When male pilots refused to fly the new B-29 Superfortress because its engines kept catching fire, General Hap Arnold had two women fly it and land it flawlessly in front of them, and the grumbling stopped. Yet if one of those women had died in service, the military would not have paid to ship her body home, her family could not hang a gold star, and no flag could drape her coffin. This episode pieces together the biography of the Women Airforce Service Pilots, from the rival visions of Jacqueline Cochran and Nancy Harkness Love to the civil service loophole that let the Army use them without giving them military status, insurance, or medical benefits.

Of more than 25,000 applicants, 1,074 women graduated and went on to ferry over 12,600 aircraft across 78 models, test repaired combat planes, and tow live-fire targets at Camp Davis, where a ...