Pioneers Explorers Icons Women
Amelia and the others
Flying high on stereotypes and predefined roles in the age of propellers
Helen Richey (or Ritchey)
Helen Richey (or Ritchey)
Helen Richey (or Ritchey)
November 21, 1909 – January 7, 1947
The first woman to be hired as a pilot by a commercial airline when she was hired by Central Airlines in 1934. However, after few months she was forced to resign because of the pressure and discrimination of her male colleagues. She later flew for other airlines, including Transcontinental and Western Air. She was also an advocate for women in aviation.
Aloha Wanderwell
Helen Richey (or Ritchey)
Helen Richey (or Ritchey)
October 13, 1906 – June 4, 1996
Internationalist explorer, author, filmmaker, and aviator. The world's most widely traveled woman. Even member of the French Foreign Legion. A real legend.
Shirley Slade
Helen Richey (or Ritchey)
Shirley Slade
April 4 1921 - April 26 2000
Member of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP). She appeared on the cover of Life magazine in 1943.
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Amy Johnson
Jane Batten, CBE OSC
Shirley Slade
July 1 1903 – disappeared January 5 1941
The first woman to fly solo from London to Australia.
Nancy Nesbit
Jane Batten, CBE OSC
Jane Batten, CBE OSC
Apr 10 1921 - Nov 10 2006
Posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for her service in WWII as a member of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP).
Jane Batten, CBE OSC
Jane Batten, CBE OSC
Jane Batten, CBE OSC
September 15 1909 – November 22 1982
Completed the first solo flight from England to New Zealand in 1936.
Harriet Quimby
Hon. Lady Elsie Mackay
Harriet Quimby
May 11 1875 – July 1 1912
American pioneering aviator, journalist, and film screenwriter. The first woman in the United States to receive a pilot certificate. The first woman to fly across the English Channel.
Bessie Coleman
Hon. Lady Elsie Mackay
Harriet Quimby
January 26 1892 – April 30 1926
The first African-American woman and first Native American to hold any pilot license (from FAI in France). The tenth of thirteen children of George Coleman, a mixed African American who had Cherokee grandparents, and Susan Coleman, who was African American.
Hon. Lady Elsie Mackay
Hon. Lady Elsie Mackay
Hon. Lady Elsie Mackay
August 21 1893– March 13 1928
British actress, jockey, interior decorator and pioneering aviator who died attempting to cross the Atlantic Ocean with Walter G. R. Hinchliffe. Her stage name as an actress was Poppy Wyndham.
Gladys O'Donnell
Gladys O'Donnell
Hon. Lady Elsie Mackay
1904 - 1973
American pioneering aviator. She won the 1930 Pacific Women's Air Derby, flying from Long Beach to Chicago at an average speed of 150 miles per hour.
Rosina Ferrario
Gladys O'Donnell
Rosina Ferrario
1888 – 1959
The first Italian woman to receive a pilot's licence. She passed her test on 3 January 1913 in a Caproni monoplane.
Sabiha Gökçen
Gladys O'Donnell
Rosina Ferrario
March 22 1913 – March 22 2001
World famous Turkish aviator. At 23 years of age she was the world's first female fighter pilot. The second airport in Istanbul, is named after her.
Katherine Stinson
Katherine Stinson
Katherine Stinson
February 14 1891 – July 8 1977
The "Flying Schoolgirl" and "America's Sweetheart of the Air". One of the first pilots to ever fly at night, master of acrobatic maneuvers, first female pilot employed by the US Postal Service, and the first civilian pilot to fly the mail in Canada.
Ruth Elder
Katherine Stinson
Katherine Stinson
September 8 1902 – October 9 1977
She was known as the "Miss America of Aviation." and a charter member of the Ninety-Nines. Aviator pioneer and actress, known for Moran of the Marines (1928), The Winged Horseman (1929) and Fashion News (1930).
Mariya Dolina
Katherine Stinson
Elsa Andersson
December 18 1922 – March 3 2010
Deputy Commander, 125th Guards Bomber Aviation, awarded the Order of Lenin.
One of the Soviet Union’s “Night Witches,” squadrons of women pilots who flew combat missions against the German invaders during hours of darkness.
Elsa Andersson
Betty H. Gillies
Elsa Andersson
April 27 1897 – January 22 1922
Sweden's first female aviator and stunt parachutist.
Betty H. Gillies
Betty H. Gillies
Betty H. Gillies
January 7 1908 – October 14 1998
The first woman to fly the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt and Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress.
Hazel Ying Lee
Betty H. Gillies
Betty H. Gillies
August 24 1912 – November 25 1944
The first Chinese-American women to earn a pilot's license. Member of WASP, received the Congressional Gold Medal.
Marie Marvingt
Ruth Stewart (née Woerner)
Ruth Stewart (née Woerner)
February 20 1875 – December 14 1963
French athlete, mountaineer, aviator, and journalist set the world's first aviation records for women in time aloft and distance flown.
Ruth Stewart (née Woerner)
Ruth Stewart (née Woerner)
Ruth Stewart (née Woerner)
? 1906 - January 5 1932
Ruth, and fellow pilot Debie Stanford, 28, left Pittsburgh en route to New York in an attempt to break the standing 5.5-day elapsed time record on the NYC - Buenos Aires route. Their plane crashed on Sherman Mountain in Tuscarora State Forest in Pennsylvania.
Debie Stanford
Ruth Stewart (née Woerner)
Ruth Wells Barron
October 12, 1902 - January 5 1932
Née Sarah Tudge in UK, she moved first to Canada and then to US were she married Fred Stanford, a General Motors official, that introduced her to aviation. In 1930 in a record time of 14 days she was already flying solo and she even competed in the Woman's Air Derby. She was a passenger of her friend Ruth Stewart in an ill fated travel to South America.
Ruth Wells Barron
Frances Carter Harrell Marsalis
Ruth Wells Barron
April 13 1910 - July 3 1936
She was a noted swimmer and won several cups in competitions. Started flying in 1929. She won the first lap of the Pacific Women's Air Derby of 1930. In 1931, Barron traveled to Japan in preparation for at attempt at the first trans-Pacific flight. Died in 1936 for a fire that engulfed her airplane in the air while attempting to land in Omaha.
Frances Carter Harrell Marsalis
Frances Carter Harrell Marsalis
Frances Carter Harrell Marsalis
Dec 26 1900 - Aug 5 1934
Frances flew with Helen Ritchey in an endurance refueling flight of nine days 21 hours and 42 minutes in December of 1933. She also flew with Louise Thaden and stayed in the air above Long Island for eight days, four hours and five minutes. She was friends with Amelia Earhart and other female pilots.
Jean LaRene (or La Rein)
Frances Carter Harrell Marsalis
Frances Carter Harrell Marsalis
Dec 26 1900 - Aug 5 1934
A friend of Ruth Stewart and Amelia Earhart, née Jean Foote. From 1931 to 1934, she was governor of the South Central Section of The Ninety-Nines.
Evelyn "Bobbi" Trout
Weyzero Mulumebet Emiru
Weyzero Mulumebet Emiru
January 7, 1906 – January 24, 2003
Trout began taking flying lessons at the age of 22. In 1928, she became the first woman in the United States to receive a commercial pilot's license and began working as a flight instructor and charter pilot. She gained the record for the first all-night flight by a woman.
Weyzero Mulumebet Emiru
Weyzero Mulumebet Emiru
Weyzero Mulumebet Emiru
? - ?
Muluemebet Emiru is considered Africa's first female pilot and Ethiopia’s first female licensed car driver. She started training in 1934 with other seven students on a de Havilland DH.60 Moth, with few European teachers. In 1936 when the Italians invaded Ethiopia she was already a legend and at risk to be captured. So she was forced to leave the flying career.
Ada Rogato
Weyzero Mulumebet Emiru
Ada Rogato
December 22, 1910 – November 15, 1986
She broke five records, becoming the first South American woman to earn a glider pilot's license and the first Brazilian woman to earn paratrooper certification. She broke the world record for the longest solo flight, was the first to fly across all three of the Americas and held the Brazilian record for the number of parachute jumps.
Louise M. Thaden
Blanche Noyes (née Wilcox)
Blanche Noyes (née Wilcox)
November 12 1905 – November 9 1979
She was one of the most famous aviation pioneer and set the women's altitude record, solo endurance record, speed record and the first woman to win the Bendix trophy, alongside Blanche Noyes.
Blanche Noyes (née Wilcox)
Blanche Noyes (née Wilcox)
Blanche Noyes (née Wilcox)
June 23 1900 – October 6 1981
In 1936, she teamed up as co-pilot to Louise Thaden and won the Bendix Trophy Race in the first year women were allowed to compete against men. They set a new world record flying from New York City to Los Angeles, in a Beechcraft C17R Staggerwing biplane.
Katherine Sui Fun Cheung
Blanche Noyes (née Wilcox)
Katherine Sui Fun Cheung
December 12, 1904 - September 2, 2003
The first Chinese-American woman to earn a pilot license in 1932.
“I wasn’t interested in being in the kitchen like women were expected to do”
Melli Beese
Blanche Stuart Scott
Katherine Sui Fun Cheung
September 13, 1886 – December 22, 1925
Amelie Hedwig Boutard-Beese was the first female pilot in Germany on 13 September 1911, her twenty fifth birthday, and was awarded the German pilot's license No. 115
Blanche Stuart Scott
Blanche Stuart Scott
Blanche Stuart Scott
April 8, 1884 – January 12, 1970
She is possibly the first female aviator in USA and the first woman to fly in a jet-powered aircraft with Major Charles E. (“Chuck”) Yeager in a two-place Lockheed TF-80C Shooting Star, in 1948.
Willa Brown Chappell
Blanche Stuart Scott
Blanche Stuart Scott
January 22, 1906 – July 18, 1992
Willa Beatrice Brown became the first African American woman to earn a pilot’s license issued by the Civil Aeronautics Authority in US (an FAA precursor) in 1938. Brown was also the first African American woman to become an officer in the Illinois Civil Air Patrol (CAP).
Janet Harmon Waterford Bragg
Janet Harmon Waterford Bragg
Janet Harmon Waterford Bragg
March 24, 1907 — April 11, 1993
"I’m not afraid of tomorrow because I’ve seen yesterday, and today is beautiful." She was one of the founders of National Airmen’s Association of America in 1939. A registered nurse, she enrolled at Curtis Wright School of Aeronautics in 1933.
Hanna Reitsch
Janet Harmon Waterford Bragg
Janet Harmon Waterford Bragg
March 29, 1912 – August 24, 1979
She was a German aviator and test pilot. One of the leading female pilots in the 20th century setting many records in gliding and unpowered flight. She also served as a test pilot for many of Germany's new aircraft during World War II, including the jet-powered Messerschmitt Me 262 fighter and the prototype for the V-1 rocket.
María Bernaldo de Quirós
Janet Harmon Waterford Bragg
María Bernaldo de Quirós
March 26, 1898 - September 26, 1983
The first Spanish female aviator. She was a member of a wealthy family and had a passion for flying. In 1922, she married José Manuel Sánchez-Arjona y Velasco and began flight training under flying instructor José Rodríguez y Díaz de Lecea in a de Havilland DH.60 Moth. She passed her pilot's test in early October 1928, becoming Spain's first female pilot.
Ruth Law Oliver
Marion Wilberforce
María Bernaldo de Quirós
May 21, 1887 – December 1, 1970
Ruth Law Oliver was a pioneer American aviator during the 1910s. She was one of the most popular and successful female pilots of her time, and she set numerous records for altitude, speed, and distance. She was also a tireless advocate for women's rights and aviation safety.
Mary, Lady Heath
Marion Wilberforce
Marion Wilberforce
November 17, 1896 – May 9, 1939
Mary, Lady Heath was an Irish aviator and began life as Sophie Catherine Theresa Mary Peirce-Evans in Knockaderry, County Limerick, near the town of Newcastle West. She was one of the best known women in the world for a five-year period from the mid-1920s.
Marion Wilberforce
Marion Wilberforce
Marion Wilberforce
July 22, 1902 – December 17, 1995
She was a Scottish aviator and one of the first eight members of the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA). She flew many planes including Spitfires, Hurricanes, Lancaster Bombers, Wellington Bombers and Mosquitos. She rose to become deputy commander, one of only two women pool commanders in the whole ATA.
Competitions and races
Femina Cup
1910 - 1913
The Femina Cup or Coupe Femina was an award of 2000 francs established in 1910 by Pierre Lafitte, the publisher of French women's magazine Femina, to honour women pilots. This French challenge was opened to women aviators only.
Bendix Trophy
1931 - 1961
The Bendix Trophy was an air race in the United States that was first held in 1931. It was open to both men and women, and several female aviators competed in the race over the years. Some notable female Bendix Trophy competitors include Amelia Earhart, Jacqueline Cochran, and Louise Thaden. The Bendix Trophy race was discontinued after 1961, but it was one of the most prestigious air races of its time and was a major event in the aviation world. It helped to showcase the abilities of female aviators and paved the way for greater participation of women in aviation.
Women's Air Derby
1929-1939
The Women's Air Derby, also known as the "Powder Puff Derby," was an air race for female pilots that took place in the United States in the 1930s. The first race was held in 1929 and it was organized by the Ninety-Nines, a group of female pilots founded by Amelia Earhart.
organizations
THE NINETY-NINES, INC.®
1929 - present
The organization was founded November 2, 1929, at Curtiss Field, Valley Stream, Long Island, New York. In 1931, Amelia Earhart was elected the first President, and the group selected the name "Ninety-Nines" to represent the 99 charter members.