1941 - July 1 - Jacqueline Cochrane is the first woman to ferry a bomber across the Atlantic
1941 - Marina Raskova appointed by Soviet Union high command to organize regiments of women pilots
1942 - Nancy Harkness Love and Jackie Cochran organize women flying units and training detachment
1943 - Women make up more than 30% of the work force in the aviation industry
1943 - Love's and Cochran's units are merged into the Women Airforce Service Pilots and Jackie Cochran becomes the Director of Women Pilots -- WASPs flew more than 60 million miles before the program ended in December 1944, with only 38 lives lost of 1830 volunteers and 1074 graduates -- these pilots were seen as civilians and were only recognized as military personnel in 1977
1945 - Melitta Schiller is awarded the Iron Cross and Military Flight Badge in Germany
1953 - Jacqueline (Jackie) Cochran becomes first woman to break the sound barrier
1964 - March 19 - Geraldine (Jerrie) Mock is the first woman to pilot a plane around the world
1973 - January 29 - Emily Howell Warner is the first woman working as a pilot for a commercial airline (Frontier Airlines)
1973 - U.S. Navy announces pilot training for women
1974 - Mary Barr becomes the first woman pilot with the Forest Service
1974 - June 4 - Sally Murphy is the first woman to qualify as an aviator with the U.S. Army
1977 - November - Congress passes a bill recognizing WASP pilots of World War II as military personnel, and President Jimmy Carter signs the bill into law
1978 - International Society of Women Airline pilots formed
1994 - Vicki Van Meter is the youngest pilot (to that date) to fly across the Atlantic in a Cessna 210 - she is 12 years old at the time of the flight
1994 - April 21 - Jackie Parker becomes the first woman to qualify to fly an F-16 combat plane
1995 - In the same month, Beverly Burns becomes the first woman to captain a 747 cross country, and Lynn Rippelmeyer becomes the first woman to captain a 747 across the Atlantic
2001 - Polly Vacher becomes the first woman to fly around the world in a small plane - she flies from England to England on a route that includes Australia
This timeline © 2002-2005 Jone Johnson Lewis.
