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<font size="4"><strong>Margaret Ringenberg, 87, High-Flying Aviatrix<br>
By STEPHEN MILLER<br>
Staff Reporter<br>
The New York Sun<br>
August 1, 2008<br>
</strong><</font><a
href="http://www.nysun.com/obituaries/margaret-ringenberg-87-high-flying-aviatrix/83059/"><font
size="4">http://www.nysun.com/obituaries/margaret-ringenberg-87-high-flying-aviatrix/83059/</font></a><font
size="4">><br>
<br>
<br>
Margaret Ringenberg, who died Monday at 87, was a pilot who ferried<br>
planes as a WASP during World War II and then blanketed her hometown of<br>
Fort Wayne, Ind., with air-dropped leaflets bearing news that war had
ended.<br>
<br>
Later she became known as a leading endurance racer in the Powder Puff<br>
Derby and flew around the world. She raced as recently as a month ago,<br>
finishing third in the women-only annual Air Race Classic (the successor<br>
to the Powder Puff Derby). She died while attending the Experimental<br>
Aircraft Association AirVenture fly-in and convention in Oshkosh, Wis.,<br>
where she was slated to give a presentation on the Women's Airforce<br>
Service Pilots.<br>
<br>
A lover of speed who spent over 40,000 hours airborne, Ringenberg was an<br>
auto-racing fan too, and in 2004 became the oldest woman to ride around<br>
the track at high speed at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. She reached<br>
180 mph riding in an Indy car behind racer Sarah Fisher.<br>
<br>
Born Margaret Ray on June 17, 1921, and raised on a farm, she was<br>
interested in flying from age 7, when she took a ride with a<br>
barnstorming pilot who landed in a local cornfield. Yearning to fly, she<br>
imagined herself a stewardess and was preparing to study nursing in<br>
college, a requirement for the job.<br>
<br>
As the supply of male pilots grew scarce during World War II, she was<br>
among about 1,000 women recruited as WASPs ! to ferry planes from<br>
factories to airbases all around the country. Once, when flying a<br>
derelict plane to the junkyard, she blew an engine and was ordered to<br>
bail out. Instead she brought the plane down, much to her commander's<br>
consternation.<br>
<br>
She was relieved of duty in 1944.When the war ended in 1945, Fort<br>
Wayne's two newspapers both happened to be on strike, so a local radio<br>
station hired her to drop leaflets announcing "Japan Surrenders!"<br>
<br>
After the war, Ringenberg did some commercial flying and flight<br>
instructing, married a prosperous local banker, and settled down to<br>
raise a son and a daughter. She began flying competitively in the 1950s,<br>
and her daughter got her pilot's license at age 17 so they could fly<br>
together. She won the Air Race Classic in 1988, and in 1994 entered the<br>
Round the World Air Race with two other co-pilots.<br>
<br>
In 1998, Tom Brokaw devoted a chapter of his book "The Greatest<br>
Generation" to her story, and interviewed her as she gave him a flying<br>
lesson.<br>
</font>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Linux is an old Latin word meaning, "I don't have
to support your Windows anymore."</pre>
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