The Ventura County 99s debuted a historical exhibit on Notable Women in Aviation at the Wings Over Camarillo Airshow on August 20 & 21, 2022. The exhibit occupies two walls in the Commemorative Air Force Museum at Camarillo Airport and was co-funded through support by the Ventura County 99s and Sun Air Jets.
The exhibit was curated by VC99s member Lindsey Bell with assists from VC99s members Alison Barker, Dakota Tustin, Dawn Maloney, Judy Phelps, Mignon Gery, and Pat McCollum, and was assembled/ facilitated by CAF members: Kathy Newhard, Bob Fischer, Mike Bailey, and Rob Mawer. The amazing balloons for the airshow were designed and provided by VC99 member Dakota Tustin of The Deluxe Balloon Company of Newbury Park.
The first exhibit is a timeline of the Women in Aviation “Firsts”. It includes 225 years of international women’s accomplishments highlighting 75 Female Firsts on a 22-foot timeline. In 1798, when Jeanne Labrosse of France piloted a balloon solo, she could not have known that her name and likeness would someday be celebrated on a museum wall along with Dr. Jessica Watkins, the first Black astronaut to grace a drastically different aircraft known as the International Space Station. Nor could she ever have imagined that women would someday fly for yet-to-be-discovered-industries such as: Hollywood, airlines, medical transport, fire defense, mail transport, transport of goods, or television news.
The second exhibit showcases Four Fearless Fliers with local connections (chronologically by date of birth): Bessie Coleman, Amelia Earhart, Pancho Barnes, and Jackie Cochran, with quotes, in-depth write-ups, and photos procured from far-flung sources.
The Timeline will remain as a permanent installation, though the fate of the Four Fearless Fliers wall remains TBD.
A Special Thank You to the Following Organizations for their Support and Assistance:
- FastSigns of Oxnard for doing all of our printing
- American Plastics of Camarillo for manufacturing the acrylic Trivia Board
- Trophies Etc. of Camarillo for the engraving
- Llama Dog Mini Studio of Illinois for making our custom aviation-themed Trivia Board knobs, and chapter member Dawn Maloney for donating them.
- Sun Air Jets for their donation towards the exhibit https://www.sunairjets.com/
- Commemorative Air Force So Cal Wings for the donation of their wall space
- Lindsey Bell for her amazing talent in researching, writing and curating this important exhibit.