A Brief History
On January 11, 1935, American aviatrix Amelia Earhart became the first person to fly solo from Hawaii to California, one of her many aviation firsts. She was also the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic and was a proponent of women in aviation, of which there have been many great ones, as listed below:
Digging Deeper
Jackie Cochran (1906-1980) was an aviation pioneer that held more aviation records during her life than any other pilot of either sex. The first woman to fly supersonic, she also helped organize female pilots for Britain and the US during World War II.
Lydia Litvyak (1921-1943) flew fighter planes for the USSR during World War II, becoming the top female Ace with 12 kills and 4 joint kills.
Jeannie Leavitt (born circa 1967) was the first US female fighter pilot, reaching the rank of Major General, and the first female to command a combat fighter wing.
Question for students (and subscribers): Who is your favorite female pilot? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Gibson, Karen. Women Aviators: 26 Stories of Pioneer Flights, Daring Missions, and Record-Setting Journeys. Chicago Review Press, 2020.
Rich, Doris. Amelia Earhart. Smithsonian Books, 1996.
The featured image in this article, a National Park Service trading card by TradingCardsNPS depicting Amelia Earhart, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
You can also watch video versions of this article on YouTube.
