When was jackie cochran born

Cosmetics and aviation seem two worlds apart. Yet anyone who knew Jackie, and those who saw her in the papers, knew personal appearance was important for her. Journalists loved to report how she would pause in a cockpit to powder her face or freshen up her lipstick before climbing out for an interview.

Almost everyone who met Jackie commented on her appearance—her blonde hair and brown eyes. She was always impeccably dressed and placed great importance on the appearance of those who worked with her. Courtesy of State Archives of Florida. On September 27, , as Poland surrendered to Germany, Jackie wrote to Eleanor Roosevelt to suggest that women aviators be given a role in national defense. Jackie did not advocate for female pilots to take on combat roles, but suggested that female pilots be used for courier, ambulance, or general transport roles, freeing men for combat.

In England, Germany, and France, women had already, or were, being organized and trained as pilots for such roles. The idea was met with resistance for years, and Jackie did not want to be left out of the action. So in March , she traveled to England to join the British Air Transport Auxiliary, a ferrying service which used civilian pilots, both men and women, to transport aircraft.

She had selected about two-dozen American women who were already licensed pilots to join her in Britain. There, she assessed the British program, building a case for a similar unit in the United States. A mere four months after she arrived, Jackie learned that in her absence, it had been decided to put together a group of experienced female pilots to ferry aircraft.

Pilot Nancy Love, who had also been advocating for female pilots to be involved, was to be their director. Love and Jackie had both advocated for female pilots, but in slightly different ways. Jackie wanted to create a training program in order to train thousands of women to be pilots, while Love wanted to create a small group of experienced female pilots and get them flying right away ferrying aircraft. By the time Jackie got started, she was behind.

There, they were trained by Army Air Forces instructors, who were often not happy about the assignment.

The program, though not without its challenges, worked well, and the number of women flying for the Army Air Forces quickly grew to a point that made the dual program difficult to keep track of. Their mascot Fifinella is visible at the top of the sign. US Air Force photograph. Following the war, Cochran earned more speed records including multiple ones in her Lockheed Lodestar. In , she borrowed a Canadair F Sabre jet because military aircraft were not available to civilian and especially female pilots to break the sound barrier; she was coached by Major Charles "Chuck" Yeager, the first man to break the sound barrier.

For several years Cochran traded records with French pilot Jacqueline Auriol, a matter of pride for both nations. In , she received permission to fly a company-owned Northrop T Talon and promptly set straightaway courses, speed over various distance closed courses, and altitude records, including an absolute altitude record of 56, Cochran supported the Lovelace Clinic's Women in Space Program that, in , offered medical testing, exactly like the NASA tests given to prospective male astronauts, to highly-qualified female pilots; 13 women passed these initial tests but it ended there as NASA was not ready to allow women in the space program.

A complex woman, Cochran recognized that fact but later held an ambivalent attitude of women as prospective astronauts or commercial airline pilots.

Air Force Reserve in On May 18, Cochran became the first woman to break the sound barrier, flying She continued to set records, traveling 1, miles per hour, twice the speed of sound, on June 3, , in an FG Starfighter.

She also set an altitude record 55, feet in and was the first woman to make a? See also:. Earhart shared in Cochran's interest in parapsychology, first sparked by Odlum. Cochran and Earhart used what they considered extra-sensory powers to locate the crash sites of downed aircraft. Earhart's husband, George Putnam, was skeptical and someone Cochran considered less than a friend.

Cochran wrote she "saw" Earhart after her plane went down over the South Pacific. That still hurts," Cochran wrote. In spite of the achievements of Cochran and others, women aviators had to fight for the right to serve their country during World War II.

Cochran was in the forefront of the battle. In June , Cochran became the first woman to pilot a bomber across the Atlantic Ocean. However, because she had some difficulty operating the plane's hand brake during practice flights, she was forced to turn the controls over to a male pilot on take-off and landing.

The flight was a milestone male pilots fought all the way. Cochran was accused of wanting to make the flight for publicity reasons. Male pilots also charged that allowing women to fly bombers would take work away from themselves.

Someone tried to prevent Cochran's flight by holding up a required visa. Seeing British women ferrying planes for their country's war effort gave Cochran the idea to start a similar program in the United States.

She told President Franklin D. Roosevelt her plan over lunch. Cochran was against integrating women aviators into the U. I wanted to make a point with my planned program. In preparation for a larger effort in the United States, Cochran organized a group of 25 female American aviators to ferry planes for Great Britain's Air Transport Auxiliary. In , Cochran was assigned the task of training women pilots.

The number would eventually grow to more than 1, A bill had been introduced in Congress to militarize Cochran's pilots and incorporate them into the Army Air Corps, giving them military benefits. This is what Cochran wanted as she saw plans for a separate Air Force. She fought attempts to make her pilots part of the Women's Army Corps.