Founded during the Great Depression by aviator Opal Kunz and named after Revolutionary War hero Betsy Ross, the short-lived corps was never formally recognized by the U.S. military.
The founder of the Betsy Ross Air Corps, aviator Opal Kunz, had been disappointed that an earlier organization of women aviators, the Ninety-Nines, had not answered her goal of creating a women's national defense corps.
[11] Apart from Kunz, aviators present at the first meeting of the corps (either in person or by proxy) included: Pancho Barnes, Marjorie Stinson, Mary Goodrich Jenson, Ruth Elder, LaBelle Sweeley, Ruth Bridwell McConnell, Eleanor McRae, Jean LaRene, Jane Dodge, Manila Davis, Margery Doig, Gladys O'Donnell, May Haizlip, and E. Ruth Webb.
[16] The corps was divided into nine areas across the country, each led by a Lieutenant Commander: Boston, New York, Germantown, Memphis, Columbus, Oshkosh, Kansas City, Tulsa, and Visalia.
[12] In a letter that Kunz later wrote to President John F. Kennedy, she said that she had intended to form a "Women’s Reserve Corp" [sic].