The Flight Girls

Set against the backdrop of World War II, the novel follows Audrey Coltrane, a 22-year-old Texan and eldest daughter of wealthy oil magnate Christian Coltrane and his society wife, Genevieve. In October 1941, Audrey works as a civilian flight instructor training army airmen at Wheeler Army Airfield on Oahu, Hawaii. She lives with three fellow female instructors, Ruby, Catherine, and Jean, in a small cottage near the base. Audrey's lifelong dream is to buy Hudson Airfield, a small airfield in Dallas where she learned to fly at age 12. She has always resisted romance and marriage, preferring independence, but finds herself drawn to Lieutenant James Hart, the commanding officer of airmen recruits, who watches her with quiet interest.

Their connection deepens after James requests Audrey demonstrate a daring low-altitude maneuver in her beloved Fairchild PT-19 trainer plane, which she has named Roxy. During the flight, they discover a shared philosophy: Neither prioritizes marriage, both value freedom, and both live for flying. James suggests Audrey build a hotel at her future airfield, an idea that excites her. They begin spending time together and eventually confess mutual attraction, though both insist their feelings will not alter their plans. They toast to friendship, spontaneously kiss, and agree to keep things platonic.

On December 7, 1941, Audrey is airborne with a trainee when Japanese planes attack Pearl Harbor. She recognizes the Rising Sun insignia after bullets strike Roxy, takes control, and maneuvers to evade fighters. Spotting James's B-17 bomber being pursued, she inserts her small plane between the two aircraft, drawing the fighter away. Both crash-land at a nearby airstrip. James is wounded with shrapnel injuries, and several of his crew are killed. Audrey drives James toward Wheeler, but they find the base under attack. Racing to her neighborhood, she discovers her cottage destroyed by a bomb and finds Jean's body in the wreckage. Over the following days, they help at the overwhelmed Hickam hospital, witnessing catastrophic destruction. Catherine is found dead in the hospital morgue, and Ruby is found alive days later, having hidden in a basement, deeply traumatized.

James receives orders to report to a base in Texas, and Audrey flies out with him. At Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, her parents meet James, and her mother immediately perceives their relationship is more than friendship. James and Audrey share an emotional goodbye kiss before he ships overseas to England. Back in Dallas, Audrey follows her mother's structured schedule to manage her grief and nightmares. James writes regularly at first, sending gifts including a gold hummingbird necklace Audrey never removes and calling her "little bird." Gradually, his letters grow shorter and more melancholy as war takes its toll.

In 1943, Audrey receives an invitation to join the newly formed Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) program, a government initiative that trains civilian women to fly military aircraft, freeing male pilots for combat. After telling her mother about the horrors of Pearl Harbor, Audrey receives her blessing and departs for Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas. There she meets her roommate Carol Ann Bixby, a warm, blunt crop duster from Alabama engaged to a soldier named Gus. The two form an immediate, deep friendship. Their barracks houses six women with varied backgrounds, including Geraldine, a former barnstormer, or exhibition stunt pilot, and Sharon, a glamorous actress. Audrey also befriends Nola Jenner, a photographer from Savannah. The women undergo rigorous training: calisthenics, ground school, firearms, swimming in flight suits, and flight instruction in increasingly advanced military planes.

Officer Carter Wilson, a handsome navigation instructor who walks with a cane from wounds sustained in the Pacific, takes persistent interest in Audrey. She is conflicted: She is flattered by Carter's warmth but feels loyal to James, whose letters have become infrequent and distant. His last letter reads like a farewell, expressing a desire to "forget myself for a while," and Audrey is devastated. Training continues through tragedy when a trainee dies after her plane's canopy jams during a fire, and Sharon barely survives a crash landing. Carter eventually takes Audrey to dinner, and they share passionate kisses, but when he proposes marriage and a move to Seattle, Audrey declines, telling him she has feelings for James that she needs to explore.

Days later, a letter arrives from James, postmarked North Africa. He apologizes for his silence, explains that the horrors of war drove him to retreat from everyone he loved, and confesses his feelings are "so much more" than he ever said aloud. He asks Audrey to meet him in Florida, where he will be briefly stateside. She agrees.

In February 1944, Class 43-W-2 graduates, and Audrey, Carol Ann, and Nola are assigned to Ferry Command at Fort Sam Houston, delivering military planes across the country. Audrey encounters discrimination at some bases, where men refuse to believe a woman has flown their aircraft. She travels to Florida to see James, and their reunion confirms everything: James tells her he has loved her since they first met. They spend two days together before parting once more.

Back at Fort Sam, a letter from James's sister Ava informs Audrey that James has been listed as missing in action; his plane was shot down over Germany near Luxembourg. Weeks later, Carol Ann is killed when her P-47 Thunderbolt catches fire on landing and the canopy jams, trapping her inside. Audrey runs to the burning wreckage, burning her palms trying to wrench the canopy open before being pulled away. She travels to Alabama with Carol Ann's ashes and meets Carol Ann's aunt Nan, who reveals that Gus was killed in action two days before Carol Ann, though Carol Ann never learned of his death. Nan delivers Carol Ann's final message: "Don't stop flying." In October 1944, the WASP program is disbanded.

Audrey returns to Dallas and completes her lifelong dream, purchasing Hudson Airfield from Hal Hudson, the owner who taught her to fly alongside her father. The triumph is shadowed by anguish: Ava writes that James's downed plane has been found with blood inside, though not enough to confirm his death. Convinced he may be alive, Audrey arranges passage to France. In Paris, she stays with John Rooney, one of James's childhood friends, and his French fiancée, Marion. For three months she volunteers at a military hospital and follows leads across the countryside, rescuing dozens of wounded soldiers but never finding James. By late August, she decides to go home.

Back in Dallas, Audrey renames the property Coltrane Field and installs Nola as manager. One day at the airfield, an unfamiliar car pulls up and a dark-haired man steps out using a cane. James says, "Hi there, little bird." Audrey runs to him and collapses in his arms. He explains that after being shot down, he hid for weeks while wounded, was eventually captured, and was finally rescued by an old man who smuggled him and other prisoners to a hospital in Paris. He asked John and Marion not to tell Audrey because he feared dying and could not bear for her to watch. He recovered and came home to find her.

The epilogue, set in May 1980, finds Audrey and James at the Air Force Academy graduation of their daughter Caroline, among the first class of women to complete the program. James proposed a month after his return, and they married in a winter ceremony where Audrey wore Carol Ann's white bird hairpin. Coltrane-Hart Airfield flourished over the decades, and they raised three children: James Jr., Michael, and Caroline, who inherited her parents' love of flying. Audrey pins her Fifinella, the winged gremlin mascot of the WASP, on Caroline's lapel, reflecting on the journey from a girl who wanted only to fly to a woman who found love, loss, and a life far richer than she ever imagined.