99ers Museum in OKC; Women's Issues - Women in Aviation 99ers Museum in OKC

We still are not as public as we ought to be. The 99s incorporated is named for the number of women pilots who were charter members in 1929. As Amelia Earhart fostered the group following the women's air derby from Santa Monica, California to Cleveland, Ohio. Lou Hollander is Executive Director. It's really to support each other in aviation in the aviation field and now aerospace, of course. Both women with careers in mind, women who want to be airline pilots, military pilots, who want to fly the space shuttle, and women like me and others who fly small planes just because it's wonderful. We have 6,000 members in there and about 35 countries around the world. Most of them are US, but I'd say about 95% US and then the rest are in 35 other countries. The international headquarters moved to Oklahoma in 1975 and expanded to its current location in 1988.

In July of 1999, the nonprofit 99s opened its museum. We have acquired in the last 6 months the one of the aircraft that was flown in the 1929 women's air derby, the first one. In fact, it's the plane that's in this picture and so we need to construct an area here for that aircraft, so that's the next big thing on the agenda in terms of fundraising. Hollander tells us the number of women pilots continues to grow and with membership expansion and continued awareness of the museum's presence, fly-ins and derbies, the 99s expect to make even more cultural and economic impact on Oklahoma's landscape and sky-scape. Billy Roadley, the Oklahoma News Report.