“Flying is easy; all you have to do is get the hang of it. I can’t think of anything better than taking the controls and soaring into the sky like a bird with the earth down below.”
Selma Kantor was born in Asbury Park, New Jersey, on May 6, 1913. At the age of eight, Selma’s mother took her on her first airplane ride at a local airfield. From that day on, Selma wanted to fly. “From the time my mother took me on a two-dollar airplane ride in Asbury Park, N.J., in the 1920s, I fell in love with flying, and I knew I was going to become a pilot someday.” Many of the stories of the WASP began this way.
Selma obtained her pilot’s license in early 1943. The following year Jackie Cochran, the legendary aviator and pioneer, personally invited Selma to join the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP). Selma was inducted as a WASP in 1944, where she served bravely with hundreds of other women pilots.
When the war ended Selma relocated to New York. She was very active in the Civil Air Patrol and rose to the rank of Captain. She was the New York Wing’s director of women’s affairs for fourteen years and organized the first all-woman squadron, as well as the first girl cadet training squadron. During this time Selma met Walter Cronan, who had relocated to New York from Canada. The couple married and raised twins. There is very little information about this time in Selma’s life.
Selma never lost her passion for flight and built a lucrative career as a writer and consultant in aviation education. She was not only a skilled pilot but earned both commercial and ground instructor ratings. Selma was a leader in the International Organization of Women Pilots and earned many awards for her flying and for promoting women in aviation. She was busting gender stereotypes!
Selma continued to fly, competing in air races. She joined the Ninety-Nines. (The Ninety-Nines is an international organization of women pilots that provides mentoring, networking, and flight scholarship).
Throughout the 1960s, Selma flew in Powder Puff Derbies and three All Women’s Transcontinental Air Races, where she earned quite a name for herself as a competitive pilot.
At the age of eighty-two, Selma was living in Delray, California. She was still flying and active in women’s flying associations, particularly the International Association of Licensed Women Pilots. In an interview with a local newspaper, Selma was asked about her time as a WASP. Her response was compelling, “I was very young and gung-ho. My next flight was all I cared about. Looking back, I realize now there was a lot of discrimination against women. You’d fly into an air base and there was never a ladies’ room. Now I realize the subtleties of the whole thing. If there’s anything I’m happy about, it’s that we were the forerunner of what’s taking place insofar as discrimination against women.” Selma continued to until just before her death at eighty nine years old.
