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Women Who Made Aviation
• In 1911, Harriet Quimby became the
first licensed woman pilot. And later in 1912, Harriet became the
first women to fly across the English Channel.
• In
1921, Bessie Coleman became the first African-American woman pilot.
• On March
16, 1929, Louise Thaden made her bid for the women’s endurance record from
Oakland Municipal Airport, CA, in a Travel Air, and succeeded with a flight
of 22 hours, 3 minutes. The record was broken a month later by Elinor Smith
with 26 hours, 21 minutes over Roosevelt Field, New York.
• Katherine
Cheung, in 1931 in Los Angeles, CA was the first woman of Chinese ancestry
to earn a license.
• Amelia
Earhart the first woman (and second person) to fly solo across the Atlantic
Ocean in her single engine Lockheed Vega and the first person to cross the
Atlantic twice by air.
• Lores
Bonney was the first to fly solo in a DH-60 Moth from Australia to England
in 1933 and from Australia to South Africa in 1937.
• Anne
Morrow Lindbergh, wife of Charles Lindbergh, was the first U.S. woman glider
pilot and first woman recipient of the National Geographic Society’s Hubbard
Award.
• Phoebe
Fairgrave Omelie was the first woman transport pilot.
•
All-women’s air races were organized, the biggest being the National Women’s
Air Derby in 1929. The race was from Santa Monica, CA to Cleveland, OH and
flown in eight days. The idea of letting women race airplanes was not
accepted by many people. Women pilots showed up anyway. Amelia Earhart is
the first woman to compete in the National Air Races in Cleveland, Ohio.
• Willa
Brown was the first African-American commercial pilot and first
African-American woman officer in the Civil Air Patrol. In her hometown of
Chicago, IL, she taught aviation courses in high schools and founded a
flight school at Harlem Airport. In 1939, Willa helped form the National
Airmen’s Association of America whose purpose was to get African-Americans
into the U.S. Armed Forces as aviation cadets.
• In 1935,
Amelia Earhart is the first person to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean from
Honolulu, Hawaii to Oakland, California. She was the first person to fly
solo from Los Angeles, California to Mexico City, Mexico by official
invitation from the Mexican Government.
• A major
breakthrough in aviation was allowing women to air race against men. In
1936, Louise Thaden and Blanche Noyes won the prestigious Bendix Trophy
Race. Women have competed against men ever since.
• The
Women’s Auxiliary Ferry Squadron (WAFS), founded by Nancy Harkness Love, and
the Women’s Flying Training Detachment (WFTD), founded by Jacqueline
Cochran, were fused together by President Roosevelt to become the Women’s
Airforce Service Pilots (WASP).
• Jackie
Cochran went on to be the first woman pilot to break the sound barrier, with
Chuck Yeager acting as her chase pilot, on May 20, 1953.
• Marion
Hart flew the Atlantic in 1954 at the age of 62.
• Women got
their first step closer to space in 1959, when Geraldine Cobb, a talented
young pilot, became the first woman to undergo the Mercury astronaut
physiological tests.
• Geraldine
Mock became the first women to fly around the world in 1964 in a
single-engine Cessna 180 called the Spirit of Columbus.
• The All
Women’s International Air Race soon became known as the “Angel Derby” and
the All-Woman Transcontinental Air Race was popularly called the "Powder
Puff Derby.”
• In 1974
Mary Barr became the first woman pilot with the Forest Service.
• Ensign
Mary Crawford became the U.S. Navy’s first woman naval Flight Officer in
June 1981.
• Charlotte
Larson became the first woman smoke jumper aircraft captain in 1983 and
Deanne Schulman was the first qualified woman smoke jumper.
• In 1984,
Captain Beverly Burns was the first woman to captain a 747 cross-country and
Captain Lynn Rippelmeyer was the first woman to captain a 747 on a
transatlantic flight.
• On
December 29, 1986, for the first time in America's history, and possibly in
commercial aviation history, an all-female flight crew, led by captain,
Beverly Bass, was in control of the cockpit and cabin of a Boeing 727
jetliner.
• Jeana
Yeager and fellow pilot Dick Rutan completed a nine-day, non-stop,
around-the-world flight in January 1987 in a cabin the size of a telephone
booth.
• In 1995,
the first woman pilot in the U.S. Space Shuttle program was Lt. Col. Eileen
Marie Collins.
• Dr. Sally
Kristen Ride, NASA astronaut and a South Central Section 99 made history as
the first U.S. woman in space.
Thanks for being readers!
(Special thanks and attribution to
Kelli Gant) |
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