According to the Boeing Aircraft Archives: “On May 4, 1944, she was one of the crew of nine aboard “Sweet Sixteen,” the 16th of 1,644 B-29s rolled out from the Wichita plant.
“I was back in the aft flight blister when Elton Rowley (chief of engineering flight test) called back over the intercom and said, ‘Micky, how’d you like to come and fly this thing?’ I was just absolutely in hog heaven!” she recalled.
“So I put my parachute on my back and crawled through the tunnel which was over the bomb bay, to the front. He gave me the left seat and I flew the plane,” Axton said. “The problem was, it was all so top secret. I could only tell my husband.” Rowley did write a letter, however, verifying her feat. Micky Axton had just made history as the first woman to pilot a B-29″ (Boeing Frontiers, May 2006, Volume 5, Issue 1)
“The Commemorative Air Force Jayhawk Wing in Wichita restored a Fairchild PT-19 and renamed it “Miss Micky” to honor Axton.” Micky passed away on February 6, 2010 at the age of 91. A trailblazer in her own right, Micky will always be remembered as the first woman pilot to fly the B-29. Lest We Forget.
Read more of her story at WASP Profiles
Source: WWII uncovered
Original description and photo sourced by: US Army, Boeing Frontiers, May 2006, Volume 5, Issue 1, Eisenhower Presidential Library and ancestry.com.
