Flight Instructor Barbara Kibbee, Civilian Pilot Training Program, November 21, 1939

Barbara Kibbee started flying in 1937, earned a commercial rating, and took a job as a check pilot for the Ryan Aeronautical Company of San Diego. As the looming war created a need for trained flyers, Kibbee joined the Civilian Pilot Training Program as an instructor based at New York's Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. She was the program's first female instructor.