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This Day in Women's Aviation
Today is Tuesday, March 09, 2010 9:43 PM
1928 - Lady Mary Bailey departed Croydon (London) solo in a de Havilland DH60 Moth. She would fly to Cairo, Malakal, Kisumu, and Tabora, where her aircraft would be badly damaged by turbulence. After waiting for a replacement plane, she would continue her journey and arrive in Cape Town on 30 April, and then begin the return flight to London. By January the following year, she would have flown 18,000 miles.
1935 - The Nazis announced the formation of the Luftwaffe in defiance of the Treaty of Versailles. Though there were no female German pilots in uniform, the Luftwaffe employed the talents of Melitta Schenk Grafin von Stauffenberg. Despite her Jewish ancestry, she would be ordered to become a test pilot and perform about 2,500 nosedives on warplanes, up to 15 times a day, from over 13,000 feet. Her important work saved her and her family from deportation to concentration camps.
1996 - The U.S. Postal Service issued a 50-cent stamp commemorating Jacqueline Cochran, the first woman to fly faster than the speed of sound. The stamp depicts her winning the 1938 Bendix Trophy air race, from Los Angeles to Cleveland, in just over 8 hours. First-day-of-issue ceremonies were held at Indian Palms Resort, former site of Cochran's ranch, in Indio, California.
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