Jacqueline Cochran, American Pioneer Aviatrix

Cochran being sworn in as a consultant by NASA Administrator James E. Webb in 1961. Jacqueline Cochran (May 11, 1906 - August 9, 1980) was a pioneer American aviator. Born Bessie Lee Pittman she married Robert Cochran, a young aircraft mechanic in 1920 and gave birth to a son 4 months later. The couple divorced and their son died a tragic death after he set his clothes on fire while playing alone in the backyard. She began taking flying lessons at Roosevelt Airfield, Long Island in the early 1930s. She learned to fly an aircraft in just three weeks, soloed and within two years obtained her commercial pilot's license. In 1937, she was the only woman to compete in the Bendix race.That year, she also set a new woman's national speed record. By 1938, she was considered the best female pilot in the United States. She had won the Bendix and set a new transcontinental speed record as well as altitude records. She was the first woman to fly a bomber across the Atlantic. She won five Harmon Trophies as the outstanding woman pilot in the world. Sometimes called the Speed Queen, at the time of her death, no other pilot held more speed, distance or altitude records in aviation history, than Cochran. She was considered to be one of the most gifted racing pilots of her generation. She was an important contributor to the formation of the wartime Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) and Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP). Postwar, Cochran was the first woman to break the sound barrier (with Chuck Yeager right on her wing), the first woman to fly a jet across the ocean, as well as setting many other aviation records. In the 1960s, Cochran was a sponsor of the Mercury 13 program, an early effort to test the ability of women to be astronauts. She died in 1980 at the age of 74

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Auxiliary Aviatrix Barrier Bessie Breaker Broke Cochran Consultant Mercury Nasa Pittman Record Breaker Record-breaker Waac Wasp

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