Hey, everyone! Here is the seventh in our series of blogs about women pilots in Alaskan aviation history!
Pearl Laska Chamberlain flew planes for most of her life. In 1940, she got her start in flight when she joined the Civilian Pilot Training Program. Afterwards, she taught cadets to fly seaplanes and then joined the WASPs in 1941; in 1943, she was “washed out” or forced to leave when the WASPs were disbanded. After the war she became the first woman to fly from the Lower Forty-Eight to Alaska. She worked as a flight instructor and bush pilot for Rainbow Skyways. In her later years, she volunteered at the Pioneer Museum, here in Alaskaland, now known as Pioneer Park! At the age of ninety-four, Pearl still held her commercial pilot’s license, making her one of probably twenty female United Flying Octogenarians.
Pearl Laska Chamberlain flew planes for most of her life. In 1940, she got her start in flight when she joined the Civilian Pilot Training Program. Afterwards, she taught cadets to fly seaplanes and then joined the WASPs in 1941; in 1943, she was “washed out” or forced to leave when the WASPs were disbanded. After the war she became the first woman to fly from the Lower Forty-Eight to Alaska. She worked as a flight instructor and bush pilot for Rainbow Skyways. In her later years, she volunteered at the Pioneer Museum, here in Alaskaland, now known as Pioneer Park! At the age of ninety-four, Pearl still held her commercial pilot’s license, making her one of probably twenty female United Flying Octogenarians.
To hear an oral history of Pearl Laska Chamberlain, check out: http://jukebox.uaf.edu/site7/p/2526
Pearl Laska Chamberlain, Women’s Air Service Pilot (WASP), World War II, wearing the traditional “zootsuit” provided to women pilots, in Sweetwater, Texas. Photograph, caption, and information from Women Pilots of Alaska by Sandi Sumner (2005).
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