Janet Bragg

Janet Harmon Waterford Bragg (born Jane Nettie Harmon) In 1942, she was the first African-American woman to hold an unlimited commercial pilot license. She is a 2022 inductee to the Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame.

Life Janet Harmon was born on March 24, 1907, in Griffin, Georgia. Shortly after graduation she left Georgia for Illinois and was hired as a nurse by Wilson Hospital in Chicago. Sumner died in 1986 and Janet survived him until 1993. Her autobiography, Soaring Above Setbacks, was published posthumously in 1996.

Aviation In 1928, Bragg became the first black woman to enroll in the Curtiss Wright School of Aeronautics in Chicago. In 1933 Janet (then Waterford) enrolled at Curtiss Wright Aeronautical University, of her own money to buy the school's first airplane, and helped in building the school's own airfield in Robbins, Illinois. In the summer she learned flying and obtained her private pilot's license. she was denied a pilot's license in Alabama, for being a "colored girl", but managed to receive a license at Pal-Waukee Field, Illinois.