List of women aviators

Aida de Acosta flying the airship Baladeuse in 1903 — the first women to pilot a powered aircraft.

This is a list of notable women aviators — women prominent in the field of aviation as constructors, designers, pilots and sponsors. It also includes a list of organizations of women aviators.

Individuals

A

• Aida de Acosta — the first woman to fly a powered aircraft alone.^[1]
• Jacqueline Auriol — a French test pilot who rivalled Jacqueline Cochran in breaking speed records.^[2]
• Micky Axton – one of the first three Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) to be trained as a test pilot and the first woman to fly a B-29.

Lilian Bland flying the Mayfly in 1911. She built the aircraft herself to become the first women to fly in Ireland.

B

Willa Brown, the first African-American woman to receive a commission as a lieutenant in the U.S. Civil Air Patrol.

• Pancho Barnes — granddaughter of balloonist Thaddeus Lowe, she founded the Women's Air Reserve, Associated Motion Picture Pilots and became the "Mother of the Air Force".^[3][4]
• Mary Barr - the first female pilot to join the US Forest Service and become National Aviation Safety Officer.^[5]
• Ann Baumgartner – a test pilot and the first American woman to fly a U.S. Army Air Forces jet aircraft (a Bell YP-59A jet fighter).
• Amelie Beese — the first woman pilot in Germany.^[6]
• Elly Beinhorn — German enthusiast who made long-distance flights in every continent and flew around the world.^[7]
• Susana Ferrari Billinghurst - Argentinian pilot - first woman in South America to gain a commercial pilot's licence, in 1937. In 1940 she piloted an amphibious Sikorsky S-43 in a 4000-mile trip from Panama to Argentina. She flew to Uruguay with Elida Carles and Julia Perez Cattoni as representatives of the Argentinian Government in November 1943.
• Lilian Bland — built her own aircraft and was the first woman to fly in Ireland.^[8]
• Line Bonde (born c.1979), in 2006 first Danish woman to become a fighter pilot
• Willa Brown — the first black woman to hold both a commercial and private licence in the USA, she founded the National Negro Airmen Association of America and was the first black female to be an officer in the Civil Air Patrol.^[9]
• The Hon Mrs Victor Bruce — born Mildred Mary but most famous by her married name, she was the first woman to fly round the world alone and also the first to be prosecuted for speeding.^[10][11]
• Beverly Burns — one of the first women to captain a jumbo jet (see Lynn Rippelmeyer).^[12]

C

• Elida Carles - Argentinian pilot and Actress. Flew, with Susana Ferrari Billinghurst and Julia Perez Cattoni, to Uruguay, officially representing the Argentinian Government, in November 1943.
• Maie Casey – first patron of the Australian Association of Woman Pilots.^[13]
• Julia Perez Cattoni - Argentinian pilot. Flew, with Susana Ferrari Billinghurst and Elida Carles, to Uruguay, officially representing the Argentinian Government, in November 1943.
• Pearl Laska Chamberlain - the first woman to solo a single-engine airplane up the Alaska Highway (1946).
• Katherine Cheung — the first Chinese-American woman to get a pilot's licence.^[14]
• Jerrie Cobb — the first woman to fly in the Paris Air Show and to be tested as an astronaut.^[15][16]
• Jacqueline Cochran — the first woman to fly faster than the speed of sound.^[17]
• Bessie Coleman — the first African-American woman pilot^[18]
• Eileen Collins — former test pilot and NASA astronaut who was the first female pilot and first female commander of a Space Shuttle.
• Lettice Curtis — early member of the Air Transport Auxiliary and first woman to fly a four-engined bomber.^[19]

D

• Margot Duke, Marchioness of Reading — society beauty who was one of the first women in Britain to get a pilot's licence.^[20]
• Hélène Dutrieu — the first woman pilot in Belgium and to carry a passenger, she caused a sensation by flying without a corset.^[21]

E

• Ruth Elder — a pilot and actress known as the "Miss America of Aviation."^[22]
• Amelia Earhart — the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic.^[23]

F

• Wally Funk — One of the Mercury 13, she became the first female air safety investigator at the FAA.^[24]

G

• Maggie Gee – an American aviator who served in the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) in World War II.
• Betty Gillies – a pioneering American aviator and the first pilot to qualify for the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron.
• Sabiha Gökçen — adopted by Kemal Atatürk, she was Turkey's first female combat pilot.^[25]
• Valentina Grizodubova — long distance flyer and wartime hero, she was the most decorated woman in the Soviet Union.^[26]

H

• Mary, Lady Heath — the first woman to fly solo across Africa from Cape Town to Cairo.^[27]
• Hilda Hewlett — the first woman to get a British pilot's licence and to open the first flying school there.^[28]

J

• Mary Goodrich Jenson — the first woman to fly solo to Cuba, and the first woman to earn a pilot's license in Connecticut.^[29]
• Amy Johnson — the first woman to fly from England to Australia alone.^[30]

K

• Elvy Kalep — an Estonian aviator who was the country's first female pilot.
• Opal Kunz founding member and first president of the Ninety-Nines, and founding member and first president of the Betsy Ross Air Corps. As an instructor in the Civilian Pilot Training Program, she also trained over 400 cadets in the Air Corps during World War II.

L

• Raymonde de Laroche — The first woman in the world to get a pilot's licence.^[31]
• Constance Leathart — the first British woman outside London to get a pilot's licence.^[32]
• Hazel Ying Lee – a Chinese-American pilot who flew for the U.S. Army Air Forces during World War II.
• Lydia Litvyak — fighter ace who was the first woman to shoot down an aircraft.^[33]
• Ila Loetscher – a female aviation pioneer and activist on behalf of sea turtles.

M

• Elsie MacGill – the world's first female aircraft designer, known as "Queen of the Hurricanes".
• Beryl Markham — the first woman to fly west across the Atlantic alone, direct from England to North America.^[34]
• Marie Marvingt — the first woman to fly from Europe to England across the North Sea by balloon.^[35]
• Angela Masson — the first woman to qualify to fly a jumbo jet.^[36]
• Pamela Melroy — former NASA astronaut who served as pilot on Space Shuttle missions.
• Betty Miller — the first woman to fly solo across the Pacific.^[37]
• Jerrie Mock — first woman to fly solo around the world.^[38]
• Jennifer Murray — first woman to fly solo around the world in a helicopter.^[39][40]

N

• Ruth Nichols — set many aviation records and started the first air ambulance service in the USA.^[41]

O

• Ruth Law Oliver — The first woman pilot to wear a military uniform and the first to deliver air mail to the Philippines.^[42]
• Phoebe Omlie – the first woman to receive an airplane mechanic's license and the first licensed woman transport pilot.

P

• Suzanne Parish – a member of the Women Airforce Service Pilots and the co-founder of the Kalamazoo Aviation History Museum.
• Ingrid Pedersen — the first woman to fly to over the North Pole.^[43]
• Princess Anne of Löwenstein-Wertheim-Freudenberg — the second woman to attempt a flight across the Atlantic

Q

• Harriet Quimby — the first woman to get a US pilot's licence and fly across the English Channel.^[44]

R

• Bessie Raiche — one of the first women to fly solo in the USA (see Blanche Scott).^[45]
• Hanna Reitsch — German glider pilot who established many records and became a test pilot in WW2.^[46]
• Ola Mildred Rexroat - the only Native American woman to serve in the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP).
• Margaret Ringenberg — started as a WASP and then won hundreds of trophies racing.^[47]
• Lynn Rippelmeyer — one of the first women to captain a jumbo jet (see Beverly Burns).^[12]
• Molly Rose — One of the few living female pilots of the Air Transport Auxiliary who flew Spitfires during WW2.^[48]

S

Blanche Scott — the "Tomboy of the Air".

Neta Snook, who taught Amelia Earhart how to fly.

• Melitta Schenk, Gräfin von Stauffenberg — aeronautical engineer who became a Luftwaffe test pilot during WW2.^[49]
• Blanche Scott — one of the first women to fly solo in the USA (see Bessie Raiche).^[50]
• Sheila Scott — first person to fly over the North Pole in a light aircraft.^[51]
• Elinor Smith — the "Flying Flapper of Freeport" who was, at age sixteen, the youngest licensed pilot in the world.^[52][53]
• Ida Van Smith — educator who was the first African-American woman in the International Forest of Friendship.^[54]
• Neta Snook — The first woman to run an aviation business, she taught Amelia Earhart how to fly.^[55][56]
• Katherine Stinson — the "Flying Schoolgirl" who was the first woman to loop the loop; sister of Marjorie Stinson.^[57]
• Marjorie Stinson — American exhibition pilot and instructor and the first female airmail pilot in the United States; sister of Katherine Stinson.^[58]

T

• Louise Thaden — winner of the first Powder Puff Derby.^[59]
• Penny Thompson – American aviator, promoter of women's intercontinental air shows, and aviation publisher.
• Bobbi Trout — set endurance records and was the first woman to fly all night.^[60][61]

V

• Polly Vacher — Flew solo around the world in a record-breaking small plane.^[62]

W

• Patty Wagstaff — The first woman to win the US Aerobatic Championship.^[63]
• Nancy Bird Walton — a pioneering Australian aviator who founded the Australian Women Pilots' Association.
• Julie Wang (Zheng Wang, 王争)-- First Chinese person to fly solo around-the-world; first Chinese female pilot to fly around the world.^[64][65][66]
• Fay Gillis Wells — founder member of the Ninety-Nines and its first secretary.^[67] One of the earliest female members of the Caterpillar Club.^[68]
• Edna Gardner Whyte — trained many military pilots in WW2 and was the first female member of the Daedalian fraternity.^[69][70]

Y

• Jeana Yeager — co-pilot of the first non-stop flight around the world without refuelling.^[71]

Organisations

• Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA)
• Betsy Ross Air Corps
• Night Witches
• Ninety-Nines^[72]
• Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP)
• Women in Aviation, International
• Women's Air Derby
• Women's Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF)
• Women's Flying Training Detachment
• Women's Royal Air Force

References

Citations

Sources

• Douglas, Deborah (2015), American Women and Flight Since 1940, University Press of Kentucky, ISBN 9780813148298 
• Gibson, Karen (2013), Women Aviators: 26 Stories of Pioneer Flights, Daring Missions, and Record-Setting Journeys, Chicago Review Press, ISBN 9781613745403 
• Jablonski, Edward (1968), Ladybirds: Women in Aviation, Hawthorn Books 
• Lebow, Eileen (2003), Before Amelia: Women Pilots in the Early Days of Aviation, Potomac Books, ISBN 9781612342252 
• Ruffin, Steven (2011), "First Ladies of the Air", Aviation's Most Wanted, Potomac, ISBN 9781597974448 
• Shepherd, Rosalie (2004), Women Who Fly, Pelican, ISBN 1455614394 
• Thomas, Julie (1996), The Ninety-Nines, Turner, ISBN 9781563112034 
• Welch, Rosanne (1998), Encyclopedia of Women in Aviation and Space, ABC-CLIO, ISBN 9780874369588