AVIATRIX PIONEER: Wally Funk

By Scott Firsing

his Blue Origin New Shepard Rocket. The rocket, lifting-off from the Texan desert, traveled at almost three times the speed of sound and reached a height of nearly 62 miles above the Earth’s surface.

“It was my highlight, you know. I always wanted to go into space,” Wally told me.

If you are looking for inspiration, Wally Funk is your woman. A female aviation pioneer and commercial astronaut who knew she could do anything she wanted to, Wally has lived a remarkable life.

Born in 1939, Wally’s accolades and achievements have continuously piled up. She was ahead of her time in almost everything that she did. The full-length memoir of Wally’s life, entitled Higher, Faster, Longer is highly recommended. However, to point out some of her career and personal highlights: she was the first female air safety inspector for the NTSB;first female FAA inspector; the oldest person to go to space, at the time, on July 20, 2021 at the age of 82; and had over 20,000 flight hours, helping train thousands of pilots.

I had the pleasure and privilege of spending a few hours with the aviation legend in her Dallas area home in September 2022.

WALLY’S DREAM OF SPACE

Wally’s house is filled with accolades and gifts from almost every organization you can think of.

I asked Wally, while admiring the almost endless memorabilia, “With all of this, does anything stand out? Top of your list? Icing on the cake?”

“Of course,” Wally said, “Going into space!”

In 1961, Wally was among a group of female pilots testing whether women were fit for space travel. The group, known as the Mercury 13, passed many of the same tests as the men. Wally was third best, but the program was canceled.

Sixty years later, in 2021, Wally achieved her dream, traveling into space with Amazon’s Jeff Bezos onboard

While at her home, Wally made us recreate the moment Bezos visited her in her home and asked her to go to space with him. “Scott, stand here. Jeff stood right there, in that very spot, and asked me, ‘Wally, do you want to go to Space with me?’ I was so excited! I grabbed him and gave him a great big hug!” Wally gave me the same giant hug and started to giggle. “Scott, you know what? Jeff has no butt.” I joined in on the laughter. “No, I did not know that Wally!” She went on to applaud the Blue Origin team and how soft the landing was. It was very much apparent and encapsulating to witness Wally’s passion for aerospace, aviation and teaching.

WALLY’S PASSIONS

When asking Wally about how she got into aviation, she explained that it just came to her. Wally pointed out a black-and-white picture of a cute toddler next to the DC-3 landing gear.

“That was me at Taos Airport. Something came over me, the spirit of the mountain, to go over to that plane and check the lugnuts on the wheel.” It never stopped from there; Wally started to build model airplanes and ships. She also enjoyed her guns and skiing. She spoke about her hitting bullseyes in rifle shooting competitions as a teenager and winning a Distinguished Rifleman’s Award. At the same time, Wally represented the southwestern United States as a Top Female Skier in Slalom and Downhill races in USA competition.

Although starting to fly at the age of nine, it was at the age of 16 when she started flying at Stephen’s College in Missouri, graduating in 1958 with an Associate of Arts degree. As one might expect, she rated first in her class of 24 flyers. Wally would go on to receive her Bachelor of Science degree in Secondary Education and earned her Commercial, Single-engine Land, Multi-engine Land, Single-engine Sea, Instrument, Flight instructors’ and all Ground Instructor’s ratings at Oklahoma State University (OSU). Wally was elected as an officer of the famous Flying Aggies at that time and flew for OSU in the International Collegiate Air Meets.

“Your parents must have been proud!”I blurted out when Wally was telling me these stories. “Oh,my mom was. She was a great woman.” said Wally.

To the parents reading this, Wally spoke very highly of her mother, Virginia Funk, as well as the influence she had on her life. When Wally signed the cover of my copy of her memoir for me, she wrote on the book’s dedication page: “She was great”.

The dedication reads: “To my mother, Virginia Shy Funk. She was a kind and gentle mother, a model of politeness and positivity. She encouraged my curiosity and accepted my interests in traditionally male activities despite her own genteel upbringing. When I was a child, I learned from her example of helping others through community activities. When I became an adult, she happily shared my more adventurous activities. Thank you, Little Momma.”

GIVING BACK AND WALLY’S ADVICE

“Teaching people how to fly has been a big part of my life,” said Wally, who has trained thousands of pilots throughout her career.

Wally frequently mentioned her students during the few hours we spent together. She spoke about working with groups like the Women’s Ninety-Nines and Women in Aviation.

You can sense her love for community, whether it’s aviation or the local pancake house where Wally and I shared a late breakfast. “Wally!” the one waitress screamed as we entered the restaurant. Everyone knew Wally there, and the staff were very welcoming. It was clear she was a part of her local community, and that it is important to her.

Sitting at her favorite table, Wally spoke about the importance of looking and being professional. “I have taught at a lot of American flight schools. I remember one school had great individuals, but many looked sloppy and didn’t have much pride. I made all the staff clean up and wear their flight uniforms, and you could almost immediately feel the positive difference in the atmosphere.”

Some of Wally’s best, most inspiring advice for future pilots and their parents: “Just do it! If you are interested in aviation, and your parents are, you get them to take you out to the airport,” Wally tells the youth.

“Whatever it is in life, you must do it,” says Wally. “Don’t just think about it, do it.”

Your Flight Plan To The Future

With an eye to the future, Auburn University’s School of Aviation is preparing aviation leaders who will shape the next century of flight. Auburn’s aviation program consists of two degrees:

Professional Flight Aviation Management

This all started back in 2015. Two members of EAA Chapter 180 were having lunch after flying Young Eagles one Saturday. The conversation went something like this, “So…when we’re done flying Young Eagles, these kids just go home and do whatever kids do on Saturdays. What are we doing to keep them at the airport and interested in aviation?” I’m sure the answer wasn’t immediate, but it got the gears moving in their heads. Eventually, the answer came. “Let’s build an airplane.” And a plan was hatched (pun not intended).

These two guys, Ric Romanoff and Martin Sobel, pooled their money, got a few more interested pilots to do the same, and purchased a partially assembled Van’s RV-12 ULS. They formed Teen Aircraft Factory of Manasota, Inc., and knowing they wanted kids to be involved in building the plane, eventually became a 501c3 in 2016. After purchasing the plane, it was transported to a T-hangar at the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport. Our Young Eagles kids were initially used to build the plane with several adults acting as mentors during the assembly.

As we got to know the kids, we found that many of them were from the poorer section of town, socially, educationally, or economically challenged. These were the at-risk kids. This became the premise and focal point from this point forward.

You might be asking “what is an at-risk kid?” We have a broad definition of what we consider ‘at-risk’. It’s more of “we know it when we see it”. We have had kids from broken families (mom and dad are divorced), kids with learning disabilities, kids who have one parent severely disabled, deaf kids, English as a second language kids, kids who were born in the US, but the parents were not, kids who may have had a brush with the law, or got in trouble at school, and we even have kids with normal backgrounds. Lately, we found that at least one of our kids comes hungry, so we started buying breakfast bars and feeding the group, not to single out one individual. We made it known to the parents and the kids that this is a safe place for all of them.

It took nearly three years-worth of Saturdays to complete that first plane. But the plane was just the byproduct. The transformation of the young builders became more apparent as they learned to read the plans, work with tools, and build a flying airplane with their own two hands while learning STEM skills that would have otherwise gone undiscovered. There was a tremendous feeling of accomplishment. During the build, they also learned ‘life skills’ such as, showing up, being on-time, working for the entire session, and putting your cell phone down.

Over time, we bought bright colored t-shirts for our participants. For some, it meant new school clothes and they were very happy. But then, something else happened. A little transformation. The t-shirts became team uniforms. They started acting as a team. Collaborating with each other and their adult mentors, the work became more efficient and more fun. They couldn’t wait for Saturdays to arrive.