How Jacqueline Cochran Shaped Aviation History For Over Four Decades

By Dorothy Cochrane and P. Ramirez

Jacqueline “Jackie” Cochran was the first woman to fly faster than the speed of sound. At the time of her death in 1980, she held more speed, altitude, and distance records than any other pilot in aviation history … of any gender. 

Cochran didn’t just set records, she helped shape aviation. Cochran: 

• led the Women Airforce Service Pilots during World War II
• held several leadership roles in the aviation community
• was a two-time president of the Ninety-Nines and the first female president of the Fédération Aéronatique Nationale 

Before She Was 12, Jacqueline Cochran Held Two Surprising Jobs

Cochran was born “Bessie Mae Pittman” and grew up in DeFuniak Springs, Florida. By age 10, she had been working in cotton mills. She left that job for a live-in position at a beauty salon. (Her beauty salon roots would eventually lead to her aviation career.)

By the age of 14, she married her first husband Robert Cochran and had a son, who died 5 years later. Cochran would use her first husband’s last name for the rest of her life. 

Publicly, she said she was an orphan, Privately, she stayed in contact with the Pittman family. 

The Surprising Reason Jackie Cochran Learned to Fly: Makeup

Cochran worked her way up to work in the fashionable salons in Saks Fifth Avenue stores. In the early 1930s, she was considering starting her own cosmetics business. 

Cochran’s future husband had an idea. He was business tycoon Floyd Odlum, one of the richest men of the world. He suggested she learn to fly to market her business. 

That’s why Jackie Cochran first started flying: to sell makeup. 

In 1932, she received her license after only three weeks of lessons. She immediately pursued advanced instruction and built-up flight time. She earned her instrument rating and commercial and transport certifications. 

In 1935, she established Jacqueline Cochran Cosmetics, Wings of Beauty. Cochran flew around  the country delivering test products and building up distributors. 

She successfully competed with other beauty magnets like Helena Rubenstein and Elizabeth Arden. The business had locations in Chicago, Los Angeles, and eventually on New York’s ultra-chic Fifth Avenue. 

After a flight, Cochran always took time to repair her makeup and comb her hair. This was a personal preference. However, Cochran she was also aware of the public view of women pilots as unfeminine. (This foreshadowed the care she put into WASP uniforms.) She also formulated a moisturizer to combat dry skin resulting from high altitude flight.

The Queen of Speed: Cochran Starts Racing … and Breaking Records

“I became so interested in flying that I soon began racing,” she recalled later in life. By 1934, Cochran entered MacRobertson Air Race from London, England, to Melbourne, Australia. (She did not win. She was forced down by mechanical difficulty in Bucharest, Romania.)

Soon, she was an ambitious record setter. In 1937, she set two women’s speed records in her Beech D-17W Staggerwing. In 1938, she won the prestigious Bendix Trophy Race flying Alexander de Seversky’s P-35 pursuit plane. Cochran and Amelia Earhart worked together to open the space to women. 

Cochran would continue to race and set records throughout her life. Between 1939 and 1961, she was a six-time recipient of the Harmon Trophy. 

In 1953, she became the first woman to break the sound barrier. “Chuck” Yeager, the first man to break the sound barrier, coached her. She broke the sound barrier in a borrowed Canadair F-86 Sabre jet. Other pilots flew cutting edge military aircraft to break the sound barrier. However, those planes were not available to civilian pilots—especially women. 

For several years, Cochran set a record, French pilot Jacqueline Auriol would break it, then Cochran would break Auriol’s record, and so on. 

In May 1964, now 58 years old, Cochran set her final speed records. At last allowed to fly military planes, Cochran flew a USAF Lockheed F-104G Starfighter. She set three new speed records and flew Mach 2, twice the speed of sound.  

Finding a Role for Women Pilots During World War II

As World War II, Cochran was one of several women who felt women should be utilized in wartime aviation. 

In 1941, Cochran selected a group of 24  highly qualified American women pilots to ferry military aircraft in Great Britain. This freed male military pilots to fly in combat. 

The following year, Army General Henry “Hap” Arnold asked Cochran to organize the Women’s Flying Training Detachment (WFTD). The WFTD trained civilian women pilots to prepare for a shortage of American military pilots. The WFTD received primary flight training in military aircraft from military instructors.

Another woman who saw a role for women in World War II was Nancy Love. Love formed the Women’s Auxiliary Ferry Squadron. WAFS began as a group of 27 experienced  pilots who ferried aircraft.  

Soon Jackie Cochran’s WFTD soon merged with Nancy Love’s WAFS to form the civilian Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP). Cochran was the director. From 1943 to 1944, 1,074 women flew over 60 million miles ferrying aircraft and personnel, towing targets, and other transport duties. The WASP flew every military aircraft including Boeing B-17 and B-29 bombers. 

Soon Jackie Cochran’s WFTD soon merged with Nancy Love’s WAFS to form the civilian Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP). Cochran was the director. From 1943 to 1944, 1,074 women flew over 60 million miles ferrying aircraft and personnel, towing targets, and other transport duties. The WASP flew every military aircraft including Boeing B-17 and B-29 bombers. 

Members of the WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots) are pictured at Lockbourne Army Air Field in World War II. From left to right are Frances Green, Margaret (Peg) Kirchner, Ann Waldner and Blanche Osborn. The WASP were civilian women pilots who flew in non-combat situations for the U.S. Army Air Forces during the war. The program came to an abrupt end in 1944 because of gender politics.

The WASP were disbanded in December 1944 . Cochran was at the center of complications that prevented the group from being absorbed into the USAAF’s Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC). 

The WASP proved that women could fly military aircraft. Cochran received the Distinguished Service Medal for her leadership of the WASP. The WASP finally received retroactive military status in 1977. 

Cochran Advocated For … Then Against … Women in the Space Program

Almost 15 years later, Cochran was again at the center of a national aviation effort: the Space Race. The United States and the Soviet Union were racing towards the final frontier: space. 

NASA’s effort to send an American to space was named “Project Mercury.” The requirements to be an astronaut included graduating test pilot school. Only white men could attend test pilot school. Therefore, only white men could be astronauts. In April 1959, NASA announced the seven American men who would be the first to travel to space: the “Mercury 7.”

A year later, women were undergoing the same tests used to select the first NASA astronauts. Dr. William Randolph “Randy” Lovelace II, both a private researcher and head of NASA’s Special Committee on Bioastronutics, and Brig. General Donald Flickinger of the Air Force led the tests. They were privately funded by the Lovelace Foundation for Medical Education and Research. 

Renowned pilot Geraldyn “Jerrie” Cobb was  the first woman pilot to be tested … and passed. Cochran then joined the experiment and paid the women’s testing expenses. 

By 1961, 19 women were tested and 13 women passed the initial tests. These women are officially known as the “Lovelace Women” referencing the funding. However, they are often referred to as the “Mercury 13,” mirroring the name for the male astronauts.

More tests were arranged. The women were to travel to Pensacola, FL to use military equipment and jet aircraft. However, the women received telegrams cancelling the testing, only days before they were due to travel. The Navy wouldn’t let them use the equipment for an unofficial project. 

Jerrie Cobb flew to Washington, DC to plead the women’s case before Congress. This is where Cochran’s role gets complicated. Despite funding the initial tests, she testified against continuing the testing. Curator Margaret Weitekamp writes Cochran hoped “it could be reconstituted later, under her leadership.”

All this took place two years before the Civil Rights Act of 1964. There was no legal protection against gender discrimination. The testing ended. Cochran would appeal later to restart the testing, to no avail. 

Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space in 1963. However, in America, women weren’t admitted to the NASA astronaut corps until 1978. Sally Ride at last became the first American woman in space in 1983. Cochran would not live to see it. She died three years earlier in 1980.