Скачать или смотреть Willa Brown Chappell - WAI Pioneer Hall of Fame 2025 inductee

Willa Brown Chappell achieved numerous firsts while dedicating her life to fighting for general and racial equality in the military.

Working as a teacher when she took her first flight in the early 1930s, Willa’s new hobby began as Chicago became the center for Black aviation. At the racially segregated Harlem Airport, Willa began taking flight lessons at the flying club called Aero Challenger Club.

There she met pilot, aircraft mechanic, and future husband Cornelius Coffey. From 1934 to 1937, while she trained to be a pilot, Willa earned her master mechanic’s certificate and a master’s in business administration at Northwestern University. When she earned her pilot’s license, she became the first African American woman to be licensed in the United States.

Willa and her husband opened the Coffey School of Aeronautics at Harlem Airport in 1938 creating the first flight school owned and operated by African Americans to train Black men to fly and provide cadets to the U.S. Air Force. This pilot training program led to the creation of the Tuskegee Airmen with Willa training nearly 200 of the men and women who went on to become cadets or instructors.

In 1942, Willa achieved another first when she was promoted to officer in the Civil Air Patrol – the first Black woman to attain this role.

Willa continued teaching in high schools focusing on aeronautics and business subjects until she retired in 1971. A year later, the Federal Aviation Administration’s Woman’s Advisory Board appointed Willa as the first Black woman to serve until 1974. Willa was remembered for her pioneering spirit until she passed away at the age of 86 on July 18, 1992.

WAI is proud to honor Willa Brown Chappell for her trailblazing efforts to champion racial equality in the military as a 2025 Pioneer Hall of Fame inductee.

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