Bessie Coleman earned her pilot's license in 1921 after every American flight school refused her - so she crossed an ocean and trained in France instead.
TaildraggerOn April 16, 1912, Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly the English Channel - a feat buried by the Titanic disaster that same week.
TaildraggerPhoebe Omlie became the first woman to hold a U.S. federal transport pilot's license in 1929, starting as a barnstorming wing-walker before shaping national aviation policy.
TaildraggerBessie Coleman became the world's first Black female licensed pilot in 1921 after sailing to France when every American flight school refused her application.
TaildraggerJacqueline Cochran rose from a dirt-floor childhood in the Florida panhandle to become the first woman to break the sound barrier and the most decorated pilot in American history.
TaildraggerOn October 21, 1928, seventeen-year-old Elinor Smith flew a Waco biplane under all four East River bridges, launching one of American aviation's most celebrated careers.
TaildraggerHarriet Quimby became the first woman to fly the English Channel on April 16, 1912 - a milestone nearly erased by the Titanic sinking the night before.
TaildraggerBeryl Markham made the first solo east-to-west Atlantic crossing in 1936, flying 21 hours against the prevailing winds in a single-engine Percival Vega Gull.
TaildraggerBessie Coleman became the world's first Black woman to earn an internationally recognized pilot's license in 1921 after every American flight school refused to train her.
TaildraggerKatherine Stinson set cross-country distance records, performed night aerobatics with Roman candles, barnstormed Japan and China, and was still rejected by the Army in WWI.
TaildraggerHow Pancho Barnes became the fastest woman in the world and built the desert club at the heart of the supersonic age.
TaildraggerThe Night Witches flew 23,000+ night bombing sorties in plywood biplanes, gliding silently onto German lines on the WWII Eastern Front.
TaildraggerHow Beryl Markham became the first person to fly solo nonstop across the Atlantic east to west in 1936, into the wind.
TaildraggerHow Bessie Coleman, a Texas sharecropper's daughter, sailed to France in 1920 to earn the pilot's license America denied her.
TaildraggerThe Night Witches flew plywood Po-2 biplanes on up to 18 silent night bombing runs, becoming WWII's most feared women aviators.
TaildraggerThe Night Witches flew wood-and-canvas biplanes over the German lines at night with their engines cut - here's their story.
TaildraggerHow Bessie Coleman sailed to France in 1920 to become the first Black woman and first Native American woman to earn a pilot's license.
TaildraggerHow Bessie Coleman, a Chicago manicurist, sailed to France in 1920 to become the first Black woman in the world to earn a pilot's license.
TaildraggerThe Night Witches flew wood-and-canvas biplanes on silent night raids against German lines - here's their story.
TaildraggerRadio Hangar explores Beryl Markham, The Messenger, and the Night She Flew the Atlantic the Hard Way, East to West, Straight Into the Wind.
Taildragger