I was watching the film Tora Tora Tora. One of the semi comic things that happens in the movie, is a scene where a woman pilot instructor is out giving a student lessons in the early morning and she is overtaken in the air by the incoming Japanese attack squadron. I often wondered if it was true or if it was some Hollywood thing thrown in .
Turns out, its true. The woman was Cornelia Horn, daughter of a Doctor in Nashville. The Doctor hated flying, made all her brothers promise they would never fly, but somehow overlooked his daughter. She got a private's ticket, then commercial, then instructor certificate in Hawaii. She was indeed up with a student 8 AM 12/7/41 when Japanese attacked and found herself among them.
Her own account of the story is here:
http://libertyletters.com/resources/pearl-harbor/cornelia-fort-eyewitness-attack.php
She mentions something I had not previously heard, she was not the only civilian pilot and plane up the morning, two others were shot down and killed. "... Two never came back. They were washed ashore weeks later on the windward side of the island, bullet-riddled. Not a pretty way for the brave little yellow Cubs and their pilots to go down to death.", she wrote. She herself was shot at as well, "..flight interrupted by Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. An enemy airplane shot at my airplane and missed and proceeded to strafe John Rodgers, a civilian airport. Another airplane machine-gunned the ground in front of me as I taxied back to the hangar."
After Pearl Harbor, she became on of a number of legendary women pilots who ferried planes in the States during the war years. She was alas killed in a mid air collision in Texas in 1943.
She is buried in Nashville
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=7448655
(In Tora Tora Tora, she is portrayed as a matronly older woman, when actually, she was pretty young and judging from her photos, pretty easy on the eyes. Also in the movie, she and her student are flying a Stearman, not a Cadet. )
There is an epilogue to the story. The plane she was flying during the raid was an Interstate Cadet. It would be a miracle if that plane, more than 70 years, was still around, but, somebody did trace it, found what was left of it, and it has been restored. A long read below, but the photos are interesting.
http://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/a-pearl-harbor-mystery-132431368/?c=y?no-ist&page=1
I read in these forums there was a private airfield named after her near Nashville, but which (also) had an untimely end.
Turns out, its true. The woman was Cornelia Horn, daughter of a Doctor in Nashville. The Doctor hated flying, made all her brothers promise they would never fly, but somehow overlooked his daughter. She got a private's ticket, then commercial, then instructor certificate in Hawaii. She was indeed up with a student 8 AM 12/7/41 when Japanese attacked and found herself among them.
Her own account of the story is here:
http://libertyletters.com/resources/pearl-harbor/cornelia-fort-eyewitness-attack.php
She mentions something I had not previously heard, she was not the only civilian pilot and plane up the morning, two others were shot down and killed. "... Two never came back. They were washed ashore weeks later on the windward side of the island, bullet-riddled. Not a pretty way for the brave little yellow Cubs and their pilots to go down to death.", she wrote. She herself was shot at as well, "..flight interrupted by Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. An enemy airplane shot at my airplane and missed and proceeded to strafe John Rodgers, a civilian airport. Another airplane machine-gunned the ground in front of me as I taxied back to the hangar."
After Pearl Harbor, she became on of a number of legendary women pilots who ferried planes in the States during the war years. She was alas killed in a mid air collision in Texas in 1943.
She is buried in Nashville
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=7448655
(In Tora Tora Tora, she is portrayed as a matronly older woman, when actually, she was pretty young and judging from her photos, pretty easy on the eyes. Also in the movie, she and her student are flying a Stearman, not a Cadet. )
There is an epilogue to the story. The plane she was flying during the raid was an Interstate Cadet. It would be a miracle if that plane, more than 70 years, was still around, but, somebody did trace it, found what was left of it, and it has been restored. A long read below, but the photos are interesting.
http://www.airspacemag.com/history-of-flight/a-pearl-harbor-mystery-132431368/?c=y?no-ist&page=1
I read in these forums there was a private airfield named after her near Nashville, but which (also) had an untimely end.
