Elynor Rudnick

Elynor H. "Johnnie" Rudnick (April 2, 1923 – May 25, 1996) was an aviation pioneer. She was the first female president of the Helicopter Association of America (HAA), first female president of Helicopter Association International, treasurer of the California Helicopter Association, a flight school owner and instructor, aviation business owner, aviator, and airplane restorer.

Early life Rudnick was born to Oscar Rudnick (1892-1959) Her father had come to the country in order to escape Czarist Russia. The position she found involved working at Douglas Aircraft in Los Angeles on an assembly line for military plane construction. (Can We Talk ? podcast, 4:38). She also spent time at an airport in Silverlake, Los Angeles. ) It was located on South Union Avenue, adjacent to Highway 99 on 120 acres. in Bakersfield, which she ran with Bob Facer, and Rudnick Helicopters Ltd. in New Zealand. She continued to buy and sell aircraft, such as Ryan Navions by Ryan Aeronautical Company. The company considered Rudnick, among a handful of women, as playing "an outstanding part" in the models' sales, and one of the "feminine standard bearers" in doing so.

In 1947 (or earlier), Rudnick became a member of the Bakersfield Chapter of the Ninety-Nines, Inc., the International Organization of Women Pilots.

Court case In 1948, Rudnick, a "dedicated 'offshore' volunteer," established flight training at her air field for Jews living in Palestine. involved were convicted and fined for the transgression. In Rudnick's case, she was charged with conspiracy to defraud the War Assets Administration.

Marriage Elynor married David Falk, a former medic with the U.S. Army Medical Corps, who became a doctor in private practice after World War II, and additionally, chief of the Department of Urology at Kern County General Hospital in Bakersfield.

Awards and honors In 1939 Camp-West-Lowe bestowed Rudnick with the honorific of Cowgirl.

In 2016 the Jewish Women's Archive dedicated the entire first episode of their podcast Can We Talk? to Rudnick and aviator ; the episode is called "The Pilot's Pilot." It had "one-half for providing financial assistance to medical students who are graduates of Union College; and the other one-half for providing financial assistance to students in any course of study who are graduates of any undergraduate institution, including but not limited to Union College." The fund is still in operation as of 2020.

In 2007, Rudnick's husband, David Falk, established the David Falk and Elynor Rudnick-Falk Professorship in Engineering at Union College. and which "support Kern’s future with resources to help students achieve their academic goals."

In 2019, in a comment to the Jewish Journal, Rudnick's brother, Robert (Bob) stated that he and Jeff Silbar are writing a musical about Elynor's life.