Death of Ann G. Baumgartner Carl

On March 20, 2008, Ann G. Baumgartner Carl died in Kilmarnock, Virginia, at the age of 89. Her passing marked the end of a life that had spanned the evolution of aviation from open‑cockpit trainers to the mature jet age, and that had included service as a pioneering Woman Airforce Service Pilot (WASP) test pilot, flight instructor, and science journalist.

Born in 1918 and inspired by Amelia Earhart’s visit to her school, Baumgartner learned to fly in 1940 and soon joined the wartime WASP program. She towed gunnery targets at Camp Davis, North Carolina, before being assigned in 1944 to the Fighter Flight Test Branch at Wright Field, where she became the only woman military test pilot and, on October 14, 1944, the first woman to fly a jet aircraft, the Bell YP‑59A Airacomet.

After the WASP were disbanded, she continued to contribute to aviation and public understanding of science. Baumgartner worked as a flight instructor, wrote extensively for newspapers and magazines on science and environmental topics, and published her memoir, A WASP Among Eagles, which preserved an insider’s view of women’s wartime flying. Over the years she received honors including induction into the Virginia Aviation Hall of Fame and Women in Aviation International’s Pioneer Hall of Fame.

Her death holds historical significance as the loss of a first‑person witness to a critical chapter in both aviation technology and women’s military history. As one of the few women who had flown experimental aircraft for the Army Air Forces, her stories and records helped document the contributions of the WASP long after official recognition was delayed. The tributes published following her death by veterans’ organizations, aviation groups, and museums reflect a legacy that continues to inspire women in aviation and STEM fields.