Trailblazing Women of Flight

Whether you fly commercially or prefer a private plane, both men and women’s involvement in the industry made your flight a possibility. In no particular order, here is a spotlight on some of the incredible women who are considered to be trailblazers in flight and aviation. No matter what gender you identify with, perhaps you’ll think differently about flying in a private jet charter after reading all of the inspiring stories below.

Emma Lilian Todd

Dates: 1865-1937

Claim to fame: First female aeroplane designer

Born in the US in Washington DC, Emma Lilian Todd was a self-taught inventor. Inspired by the airships she saw on a trip to London, UK, she began inventing around 1903. Todd went on to design an aircraft that was successfully flown by test pilot Didier Masson (denied a pilot’s licence, she was unable to fly the plane herself). Her work in aviation was noticed by philanthropist Olivia Sage when Todd exhibited her first design at a Madison Square Garden airshow in New York. Sage became Todd’s patron, giving her $7,000, or around Rs 5.11 lakh in today’s currency, to design and build a biplane aircraft. In addition to this achievement, Todd founded the US’ first Junior Aero Club in 1908 to help educate future aviators.

Thérèse Peltier

Dates: 1873-1926

Claim to fame: First woman to pilot an aircraft

French aviator Thérèse Peltier developed an interest in aviation when her close friend, Léon Delagrange, moved into the field. Delagrange inspired her to become the first woman to fly solo in a powered heavier-than-air aeroplane. Remarkably, Peltier learnt to use the aeroplane’s controls through observation alone – particularly impressive when you consider that aircraft at the time were less reliable and far more intuitive than anything you would experience in a private jet rental today. In September 1908, Peltier flew solo in Delagrange’s Voisin Boxkite for 200m at a height of 2.5m at the Military Square in Turin, Italy – which was quite a feat at a time when the slogan “women can’t drive” was practically institutionalised.

Katharine Wright Haskell

Dates: 1874-1929

Claim to fame: Provided crucial support to the Wright brothers

The sister of aviation’s most famous brothers, Wilbur and Orville Wright, Katharine played a crucial role in the pioneering duo’s success. In fact, Wilbur once said: “If ever the world thinks of us in connection with aviation, it must remember our sister.” Sadly, for the most part, it hasn’t, although her influence on the history of flight is well documented.

Katharine graduated in the US in 1898 from Ohio’s Oberlin College, and maintained the Wright household and finances while her brothers travelled the globe, trying to bring in funding and partners. She also played a key role in the suffragette movement in her home state of Ohio. In 1909, she journeyed to France with Orville, where her charm and outgoing personality – traits her notoriously shy brothers lacked – made her an immediate hit with French newspapers. Katharine took on the financial responsibilities of the Wright Company, and was awarded the Légion d’Honneur alongside her brothers.

Although not a pilot herself, Katharine’s support of the famous pioneering duo contributed to the world of flight in a remarkable way. Without her involvement, perhaps the development of private plane rental as we know it would have taken a lot longer, or would look quite different to what we see today.

Raymonde de Laroche

Dates: 1882-1919

Claim to fame: First woman in the world to earn a pilot’s licence

Known by some as the “Baroness of Flight”, French pilot Raymonde de Laroche was interested in mechanics from an early age. After crossing paths with pioneering aviator Léon Delagrange – as Thérèse Peltier had – and attending the 1908 Paris Exposition, where the Wright brothers enchanted the world, de Laroche set her sights on an aviation career and enrolled at Charles Voisin’s rudimentary flight school.

On 8 March 1910, de Laroche became the first woman in the world to receive a pilot’s licence when the Aéro Club of France issued her “licence No36” of the International Aeronautical Federation. She was also a talented aviation engineer and became a test pilot, but was tragically killed when an experimental plane went into a dive in 1919. Paris–Le Bourget Airport in France (to the northeast of Paris; IATA code: LBG) features a statue in her honour.

Bessie Coleman

Dates: 1892-1926

Claim to fame: First woman of African-American and Native American descent to gain a pilot’s licence

The daughter of sharecroppers in Texas, US, Bessie Coleman worked in the fields from a young age and later as a manicurist in the White Sox Barber Shop in Chicago, Illinois. While there, she met pilots returning home from the First World War and, fired with ambition to become a pilot, took a second job at a restaurant to earn the money for flight training.

At the time, neither women nor African-Americans were allowed to attend pilot school; undeterred nevertheless, Coleman moved to France in 1920 and took advanced classes from ace pilots. She saw her work in aviation as a way to further the civil rights movement, saying: “The air is the only place free from prejudices.” Returning to the US, Coleman went on to become a famous air show stunt pilot, nicknamed “Queen Bess”.

Of course, while stunts are not routinely performed on private jet charter flights, we know that Queen Bess paved the way for future female pilots from many different cultural backgrounds, which we touch on again further along in this post. 

Amelia Earhart

Dates: 1897-1939 (declared dead in absentia)

Claim to fame: First female pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, among other achievements

Arguably the most famous female pilot and aviation role model of all time, US-born Amelia Earhart saw a plane for the first time aged 11 at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines – one of the Wright brothers’ early models. She worked hard over the years to pay for flight classes and her own plane. Once licensed, she set a new altitude record for a female pilot of 4,267m. In 1928, Earhart navigated a historic flight across the Atlantic Ocean as part of a three-person crew. A number of accolades followed (including, of course, becoming the first female pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean, in 1932) and Earhart also became the first woman to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Not satisfied with her accomplishments, Earhart was determined to be the first woman to fly around the world. In 1937, the adventure ended in disaster when Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, vanished while crossing the Pacific Ocean on their way to Howland Island. Despite concerted efforts by the US government, they were never found, and Earhart was eventually declared dead in absentia. Earhart was so ahead of her time that it wasn’t until 1964 that a woman (Geraldine “Jerrie” Mock, who we cover later on in this post) successfully flew around the world solo.

Earhart’s achievements have been celebrated in songs and films, including the 2009 film Amelia, starring Academy Award-winning actress Hilary Swank. 

Phoebe Fairgrave Omlie

Dates: 1902-1975

Claim to fame: First female aviation mechanic, among other achievements

American aviation pioneer Phoebe Fairgrave Omlie fell in love with flying when a small airshow took place in her Iowa hometown to mark a visit by US President Woodrow Wilson. She persuaded an airport manager to allow her to fly with one of his pilots, who carried out several stunts in an attempt to make her ill and put her off. Instead, Omlie began performing aerial stunts herself, taking up wing-walking and parachuting before setting the record for the highest parachute jump by a female when she jumped from her plane at 4,633m.

In 1927, Omlie became the first woman to receive an aeroplane mechanic’s licence and was also the first licensed female transport pilot. She was later appointed by President Franklin D Roosevelt as the Special Adviser for Air Intelligence to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, making her the first woman appointed to a federal aviation position. During the Second World War, she established 66 flight schools in 46 US states to meet the growing need for pilots. Making use of female flight instructors, she famously said: “If women can teach men to walk, they can teach them to fly.”

Amy Johnson

Dates: 1903-1941

Claim to fame: First woman to fly from Britain to Australia

English aviator Amy Johnson initially flew planes as a hobby. After gaining a degree in economics, she achieved her pilot’s licence in 1929 under the tutelage of Captain Valentine Baker, and became the first woman to obtain a ground engineer’s “C” licence.

In 1930, Johnson was determined to set a new record by flying from England to Australia. Departing Croydon, near London on 5 May 1930 in a two-seat touring and training aircraft, she arrived in Darwin in Australia’s Northern Territory on 24 May, having covered a distance of 17,703km. She also set the record from England to Cape Town, South Africa, and competed in an England-to-Australia air race with her husband in 1934, flying non-stop to India in record time. During the Second World War, Johnson joined the British civilian organisation Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) and rose to the rank of First Officer before her plane crashed into the Thames estuary, near London, in 1941.

There’s no doubt that all of these achievements have inspired women the world over.

Jacqueline Cochran

Dates: 1906-1980

Claim to fame: First woman to break the sound barrier

American racing pilot Jacqueline Cochran set a number of flight records during her auspicious career and won the Bendix Transcontinental Air Race in 1938. She recruited women for the British ATA; the First World War civilian organisation transported new, repaired and damaged military aircraft between factories, transatlantic delivery points, maintenance units, scrap yards and active service squadrons and airfields. It flew personnel on urgent duty and carried out air ambulance work.

Cochran also led the Women’s Flying Training Detachment and, when it merged with the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron, she became the first director of the Women Airforce Service Pilots. In 1941, Cochran also became the first woman to fly a bomber across the Atlantic Ocean and, in May 1953, also became the first female to break the sound barrier while flying an F-86 Saberjet.

Geraldine ‘Jerrie’ Mock

Dates: 1925-2014

Claim to fame: First woman to fly solo around the world

A tomboy throughout her childhood, Ohio, US-born Geraldine “Jerrie” Mock developed an interest in flying after travelling in the cockpit of a Ford Trimotor aircraft, aged seven. She later took a high-school engineering course and, in 1964, blazed a trail as the first woman to fly around the world. The feat she achieved – in a single-engine Cessna 180 named Spirit of Columbus – was the one that Earheart unfortunately didn’t manage before her.

Mock’s groundbreaking, round-the-globe flight took 29 days to complete and covered almost 36,790km as she travelled over countries including Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam. But that wasn’t her only first: she was also the first woman to fly across both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans; cross the Pacific in both directions; and across the Pacific in a single-engine aeroplane.

Yvonne Pope Sintes

Dates: 1930-2021

Claim to fame: First female air traffic controller at Gatwick Airport, UK and Britain’s first commercial airline pilot

South African-born British aviator Yvonne Pope Sintes’ career spans several disciplines: air stewardess, RAF Volunteer Reserve member, flight instructor, air traffic controller, pilot and author. She co-founded the British Women Pilots’ Association in 1955 and worked at Gatwick Airport, near London, as the first female air traffic controller in the early 1960s.

Sintes applied to work for British European Airways (which later became British Airways) in 1967, but was turned down in a letter that stated it wasn’t “…present BEA policy to employ women co-pilots”. She persevered, however, and became the first British commercial airline pilot in 1972, flying for Morton Air Services.

Valentina Tereshkova

Dates: 1937-present

Claim to fame: First woman in space

Although many of her achievements didn’t take place within Earth’s atmosphere, Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova has certainly made her mark in the world of flight by expanding the possibility of what women can achieve, even beyond Earth’s orbit. 

Tereshkova trained in skydiving at an early age, making her first jump in her early twenties. In 1962, she was accepted onto a women’s cosmonaut programme, and the following year she famously travelled into space aboard Vostok 6, after being selected from more than 400 applicants to pilot the spacecraft. At the launch into space, she was recorded as saying: “Hey, sky, take off your hat. I’m on my way!”

Incredibly, Tereshkova orbited the earth 48 times in just under three days (more times than any man in space before her). Upon her return, she attended the Zhukovsky Military Air Academy and graduated with distinction in 1969. Retiring from military and political service with the rank of Major General of the Soviet Air Force, she joked with Russian President Vladimir Putin in 2007 that she would still like to travel to Mars.

Emily Howell Warner

Dates: 1939-2020

Claim to fame: First female captain of a scheduled US airline

American airline pilot Emily Howell Warner developed a childhood interest in planes and decided to become a pilot at the age of 17 after travelling on one for the first time. Juggling flying classes with a full-time office job, she gained her private pilot’s licence within a year, and secured a job as an air traffic reporter.

In 1973, Frontier Airlines made Warner the first female commercial airline pilot, opening the door wide for a further 300 women to take on similar roles within the next five years. Warner became the first female US airline captain in 1976, flying a Twin Otter, and was also the first woman to become a member of the Air Line Pilots Association.

The 588th regiment, aka ‘Night Witches’

Founded: 1941

Claim to fame: The only Second World War regiment of all-female fighter pilots

The 588th Night Bomber Regiment was a Soviet all-female Second World War air force regiment, formed in 1941. The pilots – volunteers in their late teens and early twenties – took part in night missions, earning the regiment the nickname “Nachthexen” or “Night Witches” among Nazi officers. These fearless women pilots flew precision and harassment bombing missions until the end of the war, taking part in 24,000 missions and dropping 21,000 tonnes of explosives.

Equipped with antiquated and slow-moving wood-and-canvas Polikarpov Po-2 biplanes originally designed for dusting crops, the 588th pilots made daring use of their planes’ manoeuvrability, dodging the far more advanced Messerschmitt Bf 109s and Focke-Wulf Fw 190s used by the Germans. The Night Witches were experienced and highly decorated; by the end of the war, each surviving pilot had flown upwards of 800 missions. Thirty members died in combat and 23 were awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union title.

Patty Wagstaff

Dates: 1952-present

Claim to fame: “First Lady of Aerobatics” and her extreme flying skills

American aviator Patty Wagstaff has aviation in her blood: her father was a Japan Airlines pilot and her sister flies for United Airlines. She took flying lessons after moving to Alaska in the late 1970s and first qualified for the US National Aerobatic Team in 1985. In 1991, she became the first woman to win the US National Aerobatic Championships, a feat she has achieved three times over the course of her career.

No doubt inspired by greats like the aforementioned Bessie Coleman, Wagstaff was named the Betty Skelton First Lady of Aerobatics for six consecutive years from 1988 to 1994, and has been inducted into several aviation halls of fame, including the Women in International Aviation’s Hall of Fame and US National Aviation Hall of Fame. Today Wagstaff is based in Florida, where she runs a pilot training school alongside her work as an airshow pilot, film stunt pilot and flight instructor.

Eileen Collins

Dates: 1956-present

Claim to fame: First woman to pilot a space shuttle

New York-born Eileen Collins expressed an early interest in aviation. One of just four women chosen to undergo pilot training at Vance Air Force Base in Oklahoma, she began her career as a military instructor and test pilot before becoming the second female pilot to attend the US Air Force Test Pilot School.

Collins was chosen to be an astronaut in 1990 and was the first female space shuttle pilot and the first woman to command a US space shuttle. During a space mission in 1999, she also became the first astronaut to complete a 360-degree pitch manoeuvre in a space shuttle. Collins retired as a NASA astronaut and US Air Force colonel, having received several medals for her service to aviation and aerospace.

Mélanie Astles

Dates: 1982-present

Claim to fame: First female pilot to compete in a Red Bull air race

Born to a French mother and British father, Mélanie Astles grew up in the south of France and dreamed of becoming a pilot after attending an air show when she was six years old. She left school at 18 and worked at a petrol station to save up for flying lessons, beginning her training aged 21 and earning her private pilot’s licence four years later.

Astles’ big break came when an essay she wrote about her love of flying won her a place at an aerobatics training camp. She went on to become a five-time French Aerobatic Champion, and made history by competing in the 2016 Red Bull Challenger Cup. Astles is ranked the fifth-best female aerobatic pilot in the world, and is on the ministerial list of high-level French athletes.

From the early female aviation pioneers who weren’t eligible to get their pilot’s licence at the beginning of this article to Astles’ remarkable achievements in contemporary aviation, it’s clear that we’ve covered a broad range of accolades for women over the past 100 years or so, and we look forward to many more. 

After reading this, you might be interested in getting into a plane yourself, and with a touch of luxury about it, too. If you’re already thinking about the cost of a private jet charter, we can help.

Fly with today’s remarkable pilots when you book with Air Charter Service (ACS)

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