Hot Springs Greater Learning Foundation
Thermopolis, Wyoming
Heroes of the Sky -- Teacher Resources
Women in Aviation - Timeline
1784 Elisabeth Thible becomes first woman to fly in a hot air balloon..
1798 Jeanne Labrosse is first woman to solo in a balloon.
1809 Marie Madeleine Sopie Blanchard becomes first woman to lose her life while flying -- she was watching fireworks in her hydrogen balloon.
1880 Mary Myers is first American woman to solo in a balloon.
1903 Aida de Acosta is first woman to solo in a dirigible.
1906 E. Lillian Todd is first woman to design and build an airplane, though it never flew.
1908 Madame Therese Peltier is first woman to fly an airplane solo.
1910 Baroness Raymonde de Laroche obtains a license from Aero Club of France, first woman licensed in the world.
1910 Blanche Stuart Scott, without permission or knowledge of Glenn Curtiss, the airplane's owner and builder, removes a small wood wedge and is able to get the airplane airborne -- without any flying lessons -- thus becoming first American woman to pilot an airplane.
1910 Bessica Raiche's flight qualifies her, for some, as first woman pilot in America -- because some discount the flight of Scott as accidental and therefore deny her this credit.
1910 Baroness Raymonde de la Roche becomes first woman in world to earn a pilot's license.
1911 Harriet Quimby becomes first American woman licensed pilot.
1911 Harriet Quimby becomes first woman to fly at night.
1912 Harriet Quimby becomes first woman to pilot her own aircraft across English Channel.
1913 Alys McKey Bryant is first woman pilot in Canada.
1916 Ruth Law sets two American records flying from Chicago to New York.
1918 U.S. postmaster general approves appointment of Marjorie Stinson as first female airmail pilot.
1919 Ruth Law becomes first person to fly air mail in Phillipines.
1921 Adrienne Bolland is first woman to fly over the Andes.
1921 Bessie Coleman becomes first African American, male or female, to earn a pilot's license.
1922 Lillian Gatlin is first woman to fly across America as a passenger.
1928 Amelia Earhart is first woman to fly across the Atlantic -- Lou Gordon and Wilmer Stultz did most of the flying.
1929 First Women's Air Derby is held. Louise Thaden wins, Gladys O'Donnell takes second place and Amelia Earhart takes third.
1929 Florence Lowe “Pancho” Barnes becomes first woman stunt pilot in motion pictures (in Hell's Angels).
1929 Amelia Earhart becomes first president of the Ninety-Nines, an organization of women pilots.
1930 Amy Johnson becomes first woman to fly solo from England to Australia.
1930 Anne Morrow Lindbergh becomes first woman to earn a glider pilot license.
1931 Ruth Nichols fails in her attempt to fly solo across the Atlantic, but she breaks world distance record flying from California to Kentucky.
1931 Katherine Cheung becomes first woman of Chinese ancestry to earn a pilot's license.
1932 Amelia Earhart is first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic.
1932 Ruthy Tu becomes first woman pilot in the Chinese Army.
1934 Helen Richey becomes first woman pilot hired by a regularly scheduled airline, Central Airlines.
1934 Jean Batten is first woman to fly round trip England to Australia.
1935 Amelia Earhart is first person to fly solo from Hawaii to American mainland.
1936 Beryl Markham becomes first woman to fly across the Atlantic east to west.
1936 Louise Thaden and Blance Noyes beat male pilots also entered in the Bendix Trophy Race, first victory of women over men in a race in which both men and women could enter. The next year, they would not let women compete.
1937 Amelia Earhart lost over Pacific.
1938 Hanna Reitsch becomes first woman to fly a helicopter and first woman to be licensed as a helicopter pilot.
1939 Willa Brown, first African-American commercial pilot and first African American woman officer in the Civil Air Patrol, helps form the National Airmen's Association of America to help open up the U.S. Armed Forces to African American men.
1939 Jacqueline Cochran sets international speed record; the same year, she is first woman to make a blind landing.