This Day in Women's Aviation

Today is Saturday, February 04, 2012 4:28 PM

1923 - The first African-American aviatrix Bessie Coleman, who had recently purchased a Jenny, set out to fly it to Santa Monica but crashed, resulting in a fractured leg and three broken ribs. She would recuperate in a hospital for 3 months before continuing her historic flying career.

1935 - Evelyn Sharp, 16, of Ord, Nebraska, took her first flying lesson from a barnstormer who could not pay a bill owed by him to her father. She would earn her amateur pilot's license later that year, followed by her private pilot's license at 17. By 18, she would be the youngest person (male or female) in the U.S. with a commercial pilot's license. She would become a barnstormer and then an instructor in California before joining the WAFS as its most experienced pilot with 2,968 hours.

1942 - Suzanne Humphreys-Ford, a flight instructor at Roosevelt Field on Long Island, New York, applied to Britain's Air Transport Auxiliary. She would serve as a ferry pilot for the Royal Air Force since, at that time, women were not allowed in the U.S. Army Air Corps. Although combat missions were prohibited for women, Suzanne would qualify to fly approximately 75 of the planes Britain flew during World War II. Her favorite would be the Spitfire and her favorite maneuver: on final approach, ascend vertically, spin twice, and then land--her signature landing.

1996 - Jetta Schantz of Jacksonville Beach, Florida landed her balloon in Wellborn, Texas, 15 hours and 11 minutes after launching from McAlester, Oklahoma the previous evening. Her over-300-mile journey was the culmination of a 5-year dream as she conquered her first night flight and set a world ballooning duration record for women in an AX-7-15 hot air balloon.

2006 - Stephanie Wallach hung up her captain's hat following her final flight, making Alaska Airlines history as their first female pilot to reach the FAA-mandated retirement age of 60. She was one of the first 10 female commercial pilots, the first woman to pilot a Boeing 727 passenger jet, and a founding member of the International Society of Women Airline Pilots.

2010 - The film “The Legend of Pancho Barnes and the Happy Bottom Riding Club” premiered at the Aviation Museum at San Francisco International Airport. Florence “Pancho” Barnes was the first woman stunt pilot in Hollywood, and broke Amelia Earhart’s airspeed record in 1930. In the 1940s and ‘50s, she hosted the fasted pilots in the world at her Happy Bottom Riding Club guest ranch near Edwards AFB, California. The documentary featured actress Kathy Bates as the voice of the ill-behaved aviatrix.