MANAGEMENT IN AVIATION HISTORY BENCH MARKS
from Orange County, CA, were honored with a plaque, a monument and pepper trees planted on the campus of Brea Olinda High School.
Jacqueline Cochran (1906-1980), a famous pilot for her
speed, distance and altitude records, was the fi rst woman to fl y a bomber across the Atlantic Ocean in 1941, while ferrying aircraft to Britain. When the U.S. entered WWII, Cochran organized the WASPs who trained at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, TX. Cochran might have achieved more record-breaking fl ights than any male or female in U.S. history, including the fi rst woman to break the sound barrier (1953), the fi rst woman to land and take off from an aircraft carrier, and the fi rst woman to fl y at Mach 2. Tributes to Cochran include the Jacqueline Cochran Regional Airport (KTRM) at Thermal, CA, where there is also a monument bearing a sculpture of the aviatrix. The “Mercury 13” were the fi rst women who (almost)
participated in the U.S. astronaut program. In the 1960s, Cochran gained testing for the fi rst women in NASA’s space program. Thirteen qualifi ed, but Congress ruled that women were not fi t to be astronauts. Modern history books and a documentary for television and women in aviation conferences have since recognized their contributions, but to date, no tribute in the form of a statue or plaque has been made for the Mercury 13.
Sally Ride (1951-2012) was America’s fi rst woman in space and has elementary schools named for her in Woodlands, TX, and Germantown, MD. In 2012, NASA named the landing site of a lunar probe in her honor. There are statues for deceased astronauts Jack Swigert,
James Reilly, Mike Anderson and Willie McCool. Christa McAuliff e, Judith Resnick, Laurel B. Clark and Kaplana Chawla died in space shuttle accidents. Tributes to our women in space include a wide array of buildings, streets, asteroids, lunar sites, fountains, parks, a hill on Mars and craters on Venus. However, for a statue of a North American female astronaut, you would have to visit Ontario, Canada, where that country’s fi rst female in space, Roberta Bondar, graces a park in Sault Ste. Marie. Perhaps the success of the 2013 fi lm “Gravity,” starring Sandra Bullock, will inspire a monument or statue to honor our female astronauts. As aviation historian Kirk House wrote, “Remembrance is a sign of honor.” When Jerrie Mock learned of the statue in her honor, she said that she hoped her sculpture would cause a child to learn of her fl ight and be inspired. Said Mock, “I’d tell them, don’t listen to people who say women can’t do things. That’s nonsense.”
Giacinta Bradley Koontz is an aviation historian, magazine columnist and author who has received the DAR History Medal and Honorable Mention from the New York Book Festival. She has appeared on the History Channel and in PBS documentaries. For more information, visit
www.GiaBKoontz.com.
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