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This Day in Women's Aviation
Today is Friday, March 12, 2010 10:30 PM
1947 - Carolyn West and Beatrice Medes flew an Ercoupe to win the first All Women Transcontinental Air Race; they were the only finishers! It was the first year The Ninety-Nines-sponsored competition, earlier known as the Women's Air Derby, went by the name of AWTAR.
1963 - The rivalry between Jackie Cochran and Frenchwoman Jacqueline Auriol, daughter-in-law of then-president of France, came to a head with the American victorious when Jackie became the first woman to break the sound barrier solo. Jackie flew a 15/25 kilometer course in a TF 104G Starfighter at 1,273 mph.
1963 - NASA astronaut Patricia Hilliard Robertson was born in Indiana, Pennsylvania. Awaiting her first spaceflight assignment since becoming an astronaut since 1998, she and the pilot would be killed when their single-engine plane cartwheeled into trees during takeoff-and-landing practice at an airfield in Manvel, Texas. In addition to being a medical doctor, Patty, 38, was a multi-engine-rated flight instructor with more than 1,500 flight hours. Her alma mater, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, would posthumously dedicate the Patricia Hilliard Robertson Center for Aviation Medicine at the Indiana Regional Medical Center in her honor.
1994 - Pilot, flight engineer, and master restorer Mary Feik was inducted into the Women in Aviation Pioneer Hall of Fame at the International Conference of Women in Aviation. She authored pilot training and maintenance manuals for many military aircraft as well as aviation-related reports in engineering and physics for the U.S. Armed Forces. She then spent 10 years as a restoration specialist at the National Air and Space Museum's Paul E. Garber Restoration Facility, working on the 1910 Wiseman-Cook aircraft, the "ALPHA" Mail plane, the WWI SPAD XIII fighter, and the 1930 Northrop.
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