Jacqueline Cochran - Early life, Contributions to aviation, Political activities, Legacy, Awards

Aviator, born in Pensacola, Florida, USA. She received her pilot's licence in 1932, became the first woman to fly in the Bendix transcontinental air race in 1935, and in 1938 secured the transcontinental record. The International League of Aviators named her the world's outstanding woman pilot (1937–50, 1953). She became director of Women Auxiliary Service Pilots in the US air force in 1943. In 1953 she became the first woman to fly faster than sound (in an F-86 Sabre fighter), and in 1964 flew faster than twice the speed of sound.

Jacqueline Cochran (May 11, 1906 – August 9, 1980) was a pioneer American aviatrix.

Early life

Bessie Lee Pittman was born in Muscogee, Florida, the youngest of the five children of Mary (Grant) and Ira Pittman, a poor mill worker who moved from town to town in search of work.

The impoverished Bessie Pittman became the beautiful and talented Jacqueline Cochran who met Floyd Bostwick Odlum, the middle-aged founder of Atlas Corp. Cochran had a quick mind and an affinity for business and the investment proved a lucrative one. In 1953 and 1954 the Associated Press named her "Woman of the Year in Business."

After a friend offered her a ride in an aircraft, a thrilled Jacqueline Cochran began taking flying lessons at Roosevelt Airfield on Long Island.

Contributions to aviation

Known by her friends as "Jackie," and maintaining the Cochran name, she began competing in both American and international air races, at first being denied entry at home in the Bendix Los Angeles to Cleveland race because officials restricted entrants to men only.

In 1939, she set a new altitude and international speed record, receiving the Clifford Burke Harmon Trophy as the outstanding woman flier in the world five times. Before the U.S. joined World War II, she was part of "Wings for Britain" that delivered American built aircraft to Britain and she became the first woman to fly a bomber across the Atlantic. For several months she worked for the British Air Transport Auxiliary, recruiting qualified women pilots in the United States and taking them to England where they joined the Air Transport Auxiliary.

At war's end, she was hired by a magazine to report on global post-war events. In this role, she witnessed Japanese General Tomoyuki Yamashita's surrender in the Philippines, then was the first (non-Japanese) woman to enter Japan after the War and attended the Nuremberg Trials in Germany. Following the end of the War, she pursued flying the new jet engine aircraft going on to set numerous records. In 1948 Cochran joined the U.S. Air Force Reserve where she eventually rose to the rank of Colonel.

From numerous countries around the world, she was given citations and decorations. In 1949, the government of France recognized her contribution to the war and aviation, awarding her the Legion of Honor and again in 1951 with the French Air Medal. She is the only woman to ever receive the Gold Medal from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale. She would go on to be elected to that body's board of directors and director of Northwest Airlines in the U.S. At home, the Air Force awarded her the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Legion of Merit.

Encouraged by then-Major Chuck Yeager, with whom she shared a lifelong friendship, on May 18, 1953, at Rogers Dry Lake, California, Cochran flew a Canadair F-86 Sabre jet borrowed from the Royal Canadian Air Force at an average speed of 652.337 mph, becoming the first woman to break the sound barrier. She was also the first woman to land and take off from an aircraft carrier, the first woman to reach Mach 2, the first woman to pilot a bomber across the North Atlantic (in 1941), the first woman enshrined in the Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton, Ohio, the first pilot to make blind (instrument) landing, the ONLY woman to ever be President of the Federation Aeronautique lnt'l (58-61), the first woman to fly a fixed-wing, jet aircraft across the Atlantic, the first pilot to fly above 20,000 feet with an oxygen mask and the first woman to enter the Bendix Trans-continental Race.

Political activities

Politically ambitious, she ran for Congress in her California home district as the candidate for the Republican Party. The rally was documented on film and Cochran personally flew it to France for a special showing at Eisenhower's headquarters.

Blessed by fame and wealth, she donated a great deal of time and money to charitable works, especially with those from impoverished backgrounds like her own.

Legacy

Jacqueline Cochran died on August 9, 1980 at her home in Indio, California that she shared with Floyd Odlum. The airport, which had been renamed Desert Resorts Regional, was again renamed "Jacqueline Cochran Regional Airport" in her honor.

Her aviation accomplishments never gained the continuing media attention given those of Amelia Earhart, but that can in part be attributed to the public's fascination with those who die young at the peak of their careers. Nonetheless, she deserves a place in the ranks of famous women in history as one of the greatest aviators ever, and a woman who frequently used her influence to advance the cause of women in aviation.

Awards

In 1971 she was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame. She became the first woman to be honored with a permanent display of her achievements at the United States Air Force Academy.