Debrief /

A woman hadn’t flown a Boeing B-29 Superfortress like the Commemorative Air Force's FIFI since 1943, when Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) Dora Dougherty and Dorothea (Didi) Moorman were demonstration pilots for the massive bomber. That changed when Debbie Travis King joined CAF’s B-24/B-29 Squadron on its Airpower Tour in 2013, flying FIFI as well as the B-24 Liberator Diamond Lil. Although relatively new to the squadron that shepherds the airplanes, King has put in many hours with the volunteer organization, starting as a child tagging along with her father, who is also a CAF volunteer.

Who: Debbie Travis King

Started in aviation...I’ve been flying since I could walk. My dad flew for American Airlines. I started taking lessons in high school and in college got my private and started working on instrument; I became a CFI directly after college.

Hardest lessons...Navigation and pilotage was something I had to actually sit down and learn because it did not come naturally. I got lost a couple of times. You drop down and look at water towers, and you climb your way out of it.

Favorite pastime...Touring with the CAF, hands down. It’s the most rewarding, fun, hard job I’ve ever had. It’s exhausting, but at the end of the day you realize you’ve spent your day doing something worthwhile and you’ve been talking about the Greatest Generation. How many people get to do that?

Favorite airplane...I’m very partial to the B-29. I think it’s the historical connection. [Col.] Paul Tibbets was in charge of the B-29 training program. The men were scared of it; they’d lost a couple in training and [the airplanes] were considered firetraps, [with] the wings catching on fire…. He chose [Dougherty and Moorman] and told them, ‘Take it around the country and get out and show them you’re a woman.’

Advice for students...Learn the basics, because basic airmanship will never, ever fail you. If everything goes to heck in a handbasket, you can fall back on your basics.