Speaker

Join Carol Simon Levin, historian and storyteller, as she illuminates the life of Ann Baumgartner Carl, the Jersey girl who trained as a WASP (Woman Airforce Service Pilot), test flew experimental planes during the war and became the first American woman to fly a jet airplane. A one-time Bernardsville, NJ resident who learned to fly at Somerset Hills Airport in Basking Ridge, Ann’s story is a thrilling testament to the commitment and bravery of the more than 1,000 women volunteers who completed the WASP military pilot training program and flew over sixty million miles in service to our country.

A Wasp Among Eagles Book

A jet-age pioneer, Carl was the only American woman to test-fly experimental planes during WWII and the first woman to fly a jet. She was one of about a thousand WASPs (Women Airforce Service Pilots), women military flyers on the home front, who—with zero publicity and very low status—ferried planes to bases, served as flight instructors, and test-piloted repaired aircraft. This extraordinary memoir is a spirited, timely story about staying aloft in a male-dominated profession.

—Publishers Weekly