Nichols grew up in Miami.[2] Her father, inventor I.G. Nichols, supported her plans to become an aviator.[3] Nichols went to Lane Mechanical High School, where she was the only female student.[3] She entered the University of Illinois when she was 14 years old, as a student in the Aeronautical Engineering and Civil Engineering College.[3] There, she studied languages, art, and industrial design.[3]
Nichols completed a civil pilot training program in 1940.[4] She trained for her commercial license at Harbican Air College in Chicago.[4]
Service in WW II
During World War II Nichols served first in the Women in the Air Force (WAF) program, then the Women Air Force Service Pilots (WASP).[4] In the WASP, she flew both medium and heavy bombers, and was one of the first five women to fly a B-29.[3] She also flew B-17's, C-54's, and several other models of plane.[2] Nichols's work included towing targets, testing planes, and ferrying radio-controlled aircraft.[2] As an aeronautical engineer, she also worked in classified research at the California Institute of Technology.[2]
By 1946, Nichols had spent 5,500 hours in the air, many of them in South America, where she charted routes for various governments.[2] She flew in Bolivia, Brazil, Peru, and Venezuela.[2]
Later life
Nichols worked on a pilot selection committee for KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, where she was one of three members tasked with hiring 250 Canadian pilots for the company.[3] Nichols also organized the pilots' transportation to Europe.[3] She later became deputy operations manager for Iranian Airways, negotiating routes over European, Asian, and African countries.[3]
