Barbara Allen Rainey

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Barbara Ann Allen (Rainey)
Rainey as a Lt. Junior Grade
Born(1948-08-20)August 20, 1948
Bethesda, Maryland, US
DiedJuly 13, 1982(1982-07-13) (aged 33)
Evergreen, Alabama, US
Place of burial
Arlington National Cemetery[1]
Allegiance United States of America
Service/branch United States Navy
Years of service1973–1982
Rank Lieutenant commander

Barbara Ann Allen Rainey (August 20, 1948 – July 13, 1982) was one of the first six female pilots in the U.S. armed forces.

naval aviator in February 1974[3] and became the first Navy woman to qualify as a jet pilot.[2] She attained the rank of Lieutenant Commander in the United States Navy.[3] She was killed in an aircraft crash in 1982 while performing her duties as a flight instructor.[4]

Early life and career

Allen was born at

Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek, Virginia.[3] She later served on the staff of the Supreme Allied Command, Atlantic in Norfolk, Virginia.[6]

First female naval aviator

Grave at Arlington National Cemetery

In early 1973, the

Naval Aviators.[6] Seeking a greater challenge and wanting to follow in the footsteps of her U.S. Marine Corps aviator brother, Bill, Allen applied to the program and was accepted into the U.S. Naval Flight Training School.[3]

Allen and seven other women reported for flight training on March 2, 1973 at

T-39.[2]

Allen married John C. Rainey, whom she had met during her flight training. While pregnant with her first daughter, she transferred to the

R6D (DC-6).[3]

In 1981, with the Navy experiencing a shortage of flight instructors, she was accepted for recall to active duty as a flight instructor and was assigned to

T-34C Mentor.[3] On July 13, 1982, Allen, along with trainee, Ensign Donald Bruce Knowlton, was practicing touch-and-go landings at Middleton Field near Evergreen, Conecuh County, Alabama
when the aircraft banked sharply, lost altitude, and crashed. Allen and Knowlton were both killed in the crash.

Uncertainty over the cause of the crash led the pilots' surviving spouses to file a

United States Supreme Court in Beech Aircraft Corp. v. Rainey.[7]

See also
  • Naval Aviation

References

  1. ^ Arlington National Cemetery
  2. ^
    ISBN 978-1-57488-193-6
    .
  3. ^ a b c d e f Naughton, Russell (ed.). "Lt. Cmdr. Barbara Ann Allen (Rainey) (1948–1982)". Aviation Pioneers : An Anthology. Hargrave. Archived from the original on 4 February 2007. Retrieved 2007-01-16.
  4. ^ "First Woman Designated Naval Aviator Dies in Plane Crash" (PDF). Naval Aviation News. October 1982. p. 48. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-06-13.
  5. ^ "Rainey, Barbara Allen (1948–1982)". Women in World History. January 1, 2002. Archived from the original on March 23, 2015. Retrieved September 30, 2014.
  6. ^ a b c Love, JOC Bill W. "Women in the Training Command" (PDF). U.S. Navy. Archived (PDF) from the original on 7 February 2007. Retrieved 2007-01-18.
  7. ^ 'Beech Aircraft Corp. v. Rainey, 488 US 153' Supreme Court of United States, 1988. Retrieved on 27 November 2012.

Further reading

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