Page 12 - Women's History Month 2022 - Combined Special Edition of Aerotech News and Review Nellis AFB Creech AFB Desert Lightning News

A timeline of women in aviation

This is a timeline of women in 1941 1973
aviation which describes many of the • Jacqueline Cochran of the United • Bonnie Tiburzi is the first female
firsts and achievements of women States is the first woman to fly pilot for American Airlines and the
as pilots and other roles in aviation. a bomber across the North Atlantic. first female pilot for a major American
Women who are part of this list have commercial airline, as well as the first
piloted vehicles, including hot-air 1942 woman in the world to earn a Flight
balloons, gliders, dirigibles and • Se pt . 14: Ge n. He nry Engineer rating on a turbo-jet aircraft.
helicopters. Some women have been Arnold approves the program that
instrumental in support roles. Others created the United States Army Air 1975
have made a name for themselves Forces Women’s Flying Training • Capt. Jane L. Holley, U.S. Air
as parachutists and other forms of Detachment (WFTD). Force Test Pilot School Class of 74B,
flight-related activities. • June 1: Mary Chance became the first woman to graduate
VanScyoc becomes the United from the school as an engineer.
1909 States’ first female civilian air-traffic
• Katharine Wright, sister of controller. 1976
Wilbur and Orville Wright, is • Emily Howell Warner becomes
instrumental in advancing her 1943 the first woman in the United States to
brothers’ aviation business. She is • Janet Bragg becomes the first work as an airline captain.
the first woman invited to a meeting African American woman to earn a
of the Aero-Club de France and is Courtesy photograph commercial pilot’s license. 1977
awarded the Légion d’honneur in Bessie Coleman and her plane in 1922. • Aug. 5: The Women Airforce • Sept. 2: Ten women graduate
recognition for her contributions to Service Pilots (WASP) program is from UPT Class 77-08, earning
early aviation. 1913 1931 formed in the United States by merging their silver wings for the U.S. Air
• Oct. 27: Sarah Van Deman • Ruth Law is the first woman • Anne Morrow Lindbergh becomes WFTD and WAFS. Force. The women who start and
becomes the first woman to fly in to fly at night. the first U.S. woman to earn a glider graduate are Connie Engel, Kathy
an airplane in the United States. pilots license. 1944 LaSauce, Mary Donahue, Susan
She was taken up as a passenger 1921 • Dec. 20: The WASP is disbanded Rogers, Christine Schott, Sandra
by Wilbur Wright at the College • Bessie Coleman is the first African 1932 and the women in the program Scott, Victoria Crawford, Mary
American to earn a pilot’s license. • Amelia Earhart is the first woman provided no military veteran benefits Livingston, Carol Scherer and Kathleen
Rambo.
pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic for their service.
• November: President Carter signs
1928 Ocean. a bill giving all former WASPs World
• Janet Bragg is the first woman 1949 War II veterans’ status.
admitted to the Curtiss-Wright School 1933 • Dorothy Layne McIntyre
of Aeronautics. • Fay Gillis Wells is the first becomes the first African American 1978
American woman to fly a Soviet-made woman licensed as a pilot by the Civil • A group of former WASPs
1929 airplane. Aeronautics Authority. form the Women’s Military Pilots
• The Federation Aeronautique Association (WMPA).
Internationale creates a new category 1934 1953
for records set by women pilots. • Dec. 31: Helen Richey becomes • May 18: Jacqueline 1979
the first women to pilot a commercial Cochran becomes the first woman to • November: Marcella Ng becomes
airliner in the United States. She later break the sound barrier. the first African American to become a
resigned because she was not allowed 1962 pilot in the U.S. military.
• The United States Navy allows
into the all-male pilot’s union and was • Jacqueline Cochran is the first women to train as flight officers.
1980
• The U.S. Air Force Academy
Courtesy photograph graduates its first female officers.
Hazel Ying Lee, one of the first two One-hundred-fifty-seven women
Chinese Americans in the Women entered the school in 1976 in a class
Air Force Service Pilots. Maggie Gee of approximately 1,500. Of those 157
and Hazel Ying Lee were the first two women, 97 graduated.
Chinese Americans in the Women
Air Force Service Pilots. Members 1981
of the WASP program were the first • June: Mary Crawford becomes the
brave women to fly American military first women’s flight officer in the U.S.
aircraft, forever changing the role of
women in aviation. Their dedicated Navy.
service and record of excellence Courtesy photograph • Olga Custodio becomes the first
served as a gateway for future Airmen. Pancho Barnes Hispanic female to graduate from the
United States Air Force Undergraduate
Pilot Training program and the
Park Airport in College Park, Md. • Florence Lowe “Pancho” first female T-38 Instructor Pilot at
Barnes becomes the first female stunt Laughlin AFB, Texas.
1910 pilot, working in Hollywood.
• Sept. 10: Bessie Raiche of United • Aug. 18: First Women’s Courtesy photograph 1983
States is credited with the first solo Air Derby is held in the United Amelia Earhart standing under nose of her Lockheed Model 10-E Electra. In • March 21, 1983. A U.S. Navy
airplane flight by a woman in the States. Louise Thaden is the winner. 1932, Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. aircrew comprising aircraft commander
United States. • Nov. 2: The Ninety Nines are Lt. Elizabeth Toedt, Lt. J.G. Cheryl
founded to create a group to support rarely allowed to fly. A. Martin, and flight crew AD3 Gina
1911 and mentor women in aviation. woman to fly a jet across the Atlantic Greterman and ADAN Robin Banks,
• Aug. 1: Harriet Quimby becomes 1935 Ocean. perform the first all-female Aircraft
the first American and the world’s Carrier Landing.
seventh woman to earn a pilot’s 1930 • Amelia Earhart is the first 1963
license. • Elinor Smith and Evelyn Trout of woman to fly a solo round-trip • Valentina Tereshkova becomes the
the United States are the first women to from Hawaii to the continental world’s first woman to fly in space. 1984
• Beverly Burns becomes the first
1912 refuel a plane in flight. United States. • Betty Miller is the first woman to woman to be the captain on a 747
• April 16: Harriet Quimby is the • May: Laura Ingalls, a distance and fly solo across the Pacific Ocean. cross-country trip.
first woman to fly across the English stunt pilot from New York, set a stunt 1937 • Lynn Ripplemeyer is the first
Channel. record of 980 consecutive, continuous • Willa Brown is the first African 1964 captain of a 747 on a transatlantic flight.
• Hilda Hewlett is the first woman loops in a little less than 4 hours at American woman to earn her pilot’s • Geraldine Mock is the first woman
to co-found an aircraft factory. Hatbox Field in Muskogee, Okla. license in the United States. to fly around the world. See TIMELINE, Page 14

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