This is a timeline of
women in aviation which describes many of the firsts and achievements of women as pilots and other roles in
aviation. Women who are part of this list have piloted vehicles, including
hot-air balloons,
gliders,
airplanes,
dirigibles and
helicopters. Some women have been instrumental in support roles. Others have made a name for themselves as
parachutists and other forms of flight-related activities. This list encompasses women's achievements from around the globe.
Louise Bates makes the first parachute jump by a woman in the United States at
Cincinnati, Ohio.[5]
1886
Mary Myers of the
United States sets an altitude record with a balloon, rising four miles in the air.[6]
1888
Teresa Martinez y Perez is issued a
British patent for "navigable balloons".[7]
Clare Van Tassel makes the first parachute jump by a woman in the western United States with a jump from Park Van Tassel's balloon over
Los Angeles, California, on July 4.[5]
1890
Valerie Frietas (performing as Valerie Van Tassell) makes the first parachute jump by a woman in Australia at Newcastle, New South Wales.[5]
1892
Jeanette Rummary (performing as Jeanette Van Tassell) makes the first balloon flight and parachute jump in what is now Bangladesh at Dhaka.[5]
On 28 July 1906,
Marie Surcouf earned her aeronautical balloon pilot's license and on 23 August she made her first flight as a pilot aboard the balloon "Bengali", accompanied by Miss Gache. This was the first balloon flight with an all-woman crew.[9]
1908
May–June 1908: Mlle P. Van Pottelsberghe de la Poterie of Belgium flies with
Henri Farman on several short flights at an airshow in
Ghent, Belgium, becoming the first woman passenger on an airplane.[10]
September:
Thérèse Peltier, a sculptor, of France makes the first solo flight by a woman in an airplane in Turin, Italy, flying around 200 meters in a straight line about 2.5 m (8 ft 2 in) off the ground.[11] She had been taught by her partner
Léon Delagrange and gave up aviation after he was killed in a flying accident.
Marie Marvingt of France is the first woman to fly over the North Sea; piloting a balloon from Europe to England.[1]
Hélène Dutrieu of Belgium is the first woman to pilot a real solo flight in an airplane.
Raymonde de Laroche is the first French woman to pilot a solo flight in an airplane, she hops just over 300 meters.[13]
June 16: La Stella, the first aero club for women, opens in
Saint-Cloud near Paris.[14][15]
Katharine Wright, sister of Wilbur and Orville Wright, is instrumental in advancing her brothers' aviation business. She is the first woman invited to a meeting of the
Aero-Club de France and is awarded the
Légion d'honneur in recognition of her contributions to early aviation.
August 10:
Lydia Zvereva is the first
Russian and the world's eighth woman to earn a pilot's license.[17]
August 29:
Hilda Hewlett becomes the first
English woman to earn a pilot's license (
certificate No.122)[17] She later becomes the first woman to teach her child to fly in the same year.[1]
September 13:
Amelie Beese becomes the first
German and the world's ninth woman with a pilot's license.[17]
October 6:
Beatrix de Rijk is the first
Dutch and the world's tenth woman to earn a pilot's license.[17]
October 10:
Božena Laglerová is the first
Czech woman to earn her pilot's license (Austrian Aero Club, license number 37).[17]
Katherine Stinson and her mother start the Stinson Aviation Company.[13] Stinson also becomes the first commissioned woman
airmail pilot and first woman to do night
skywriting in the same year.[1]
Anesia Pinheiro Machado earns the Aero Club of Brazil Brevet No. 77 for her solo flight. She becomes the first woman pilot in
Brazil to carry passengers.[32]
Mary Riddle becomes the second
Native American to earn a pilot's license. She was a member of the
Clatsop and
Quinault Tribes. The first Native American woman was Bessie Coleman, though her legacy is not as a Native woman.[48]
March:
Berta Moraleda performs in an airshow. In May, having completed her training at the Escuela de Aviación Curtiss, she becomes the first woman pilot in
Cuba.[52][53]
May:
Laura Ingalls, a distance and stunt pilot from New York, set a stunt record of 980 consecutive, continuous loops in a little less than 4 hours at Hatbox Field in
Muskogee, Oklahoma.[54]
September:
Maryse Bastié of France breaks the sustained flight endurance record for women, remaining aloft for 38 hours.[56]
1931
August 5:
Katharina Paulus makes her final balloon flight at age 63. She had over 510 logged balloon flights and over 150 parachute jumps to her credit.[57]
Winifred Drinkwater (11 April 1913 – 6 October 1996) was a pioneering Scottish aviator and aeroplane engineer. She was the first woman in the world to hold a commercial pilot's licence.[59][60][61]
British-trained
Ruthy Tu becomes the first
Chinese woman to earn a pilot's license[17][62] and first woman to join the Chinese Army as a pilot.[63]
December 31:
Helen Richey becomes the first woman to pilot a commercial airliner in the United States.[75] She later resigned because she was not allowed into the all-male pilot's union and rarely allowed to fly.[76]
Mulumebet Emeru is the first woman pilot of Ethiopia. She was a student, but her flight training was interrupted by the
Italian invasion of Ethiopia.[82]
Inés Thomann becomes the first
Peruvian woman pilot, when she is licensed at the Escuela de Aviación de "Las Palmas".[28]
May 15:
Soviet A. Kondratyeva sets a record flight of 22 hours and 40 minutes from
Moscow to
Lukino Polie in a balloon.[57]
November 13:
María Calcaño Ruiz (also known as Mary Calcaño, later Keeler), becomes the first
Venezuelan woman pilot, attaining her license in
Long Island, New York. Her Venezuelan license is issued the following month.[86][87][88]
Major
Phyllis Dunning (née Phyllis Doreen Hooper) becomes the first South African woman to enter full-time military service as the Commander of the South African Women's Auxiliary Air Force (SAWAAF).[91]
September 25:
Andrée Borrel becomes the first female
SOE agent to parachute into German-occupied France and the first female secret agent known to have parachuted into enemy territory.[97]
1943
Janet Bragg becomes the first African American woman to earn a commercial pilot's license.[98]
Hazel Ying Lee, one of the first two Chinese Americans in the Women Air Force Service Pilots
Kim Kyung-Oh [
ko] of Korea is promoted as a captain in the ROK Air Force, becoming the sole woman pilot involved in the Korean War for the South Koreans.[117]
Betty Greene is the first woman to fly in
Sudan, having had to obtain a special dispensation from the Sudanese Parliament before a woman was allowed to fly.[121][122][123]
April 17: Eight stewardesses from the
flight attendant union speak out against the policy of retiring stewardesses at age 32 during a press conference.[118]
Maria Georgieva Atanasova, a Bulgarian pilot, became the first woman to land a passenger plane at London's Heathrow Airport, which happened under extreme conditions.
September 2: On Stewardesses' Day the
US House of Representatives helps show "public disfavor with airline age discrimination".[118]
Kucki Low,
Namibian pilot, is hired as the first woman commercial airline pilot in South Africa, flying for Namaqualand Airways.[147]
Bonnie Tiburzi is the first female pilot for
American Airlines and the first female pilot for a major American commercial airline,[148] as well as the first woman in the world to earn a Flight Engineer rating on a turbo-jet aircraft.[149]
September 16: The female crew set five world records on
IL-62 airliner (CCCP-86453), including the world record of flight range without landing (11,074 km or 6,881 mi).[156]
Barbara Adams of Guyana becomes the first licensed woman helicopter pilot in her country and first black CPL pilot in the United Kingdom after training at Oxford Air training, England.[160]
Olga Custodio becomes the first Hispanic female to graduate from the United States Air Force Undergraduate Pilot Training program and the first female T-38 Instructor Pilot at Laughlin AFB, Texas.[169][170]
July: Lynn Rippelmeyer and Bev Burns become first B-737 Captains at People Express, fly flight as co-captains (see photo).
1983
March 21: The first all-female Aircraft Carrier Landing. US Navy aircrew conducts C. O. D. operation mission! Lt Elizabeth Toedt, Aircraft Commander, Ltjg Cheryl A Martin, SIC, and Flight Crew AD3 Gina Greterman, and ADAN Robin Banks.
Continental Airlines "The first all-women crew to command a wide-bodied commercial aircraft touched down in Sydney yesterday – and they were on time. Captain Lennie Borenson, 39, first officer Dorothy Clegg, 26, and second officer Karlene Ciprtano, 25, taxied their Continental DC-10 to the terminal at 6am after leaving Hawaii about 8pm on Thursday (Sydney Time). The high flying trio were backed by 12 female cabin crew for the trip across the Pacific into aviation history."[187]
January 1:
Nivedita Bhasin of
Indian Airlines becomes the youngest woman pilot in world civil aviation history to command a commercial jet aircraft at the age of 26. Capt Nivedita Bhasin pilots IC-492 on the Bombay-Aurangabad-Udaipur sector.[192]
Eileen Collins became the first female pilot of the Space Shuttle in 1995 aboard STS-63, which involved a rendezvous between Discovery and the Russian space station Mir. In recognition of her achievement as the first female Shuttle Pilot, she received the Harmon Trophy. She was also the pilot for STS-84 in 1997.[214][circular reference]
Sarah Deal becomes the United States Marine Corps' first female aviator.[215]
1996
Maria Ziadie-Haddad becomes the first female airline captain in
Jamaica.[216]
Susan Mashibe of
Tanzania founds Via Aviation as a
fixed-base operator to support business jets and assist African clients with flight options, which do not require commercial air services and routing through Europe.[244][245]
The first civilian all-female aerobatic team in the world is formed: Patrouille Tranchant, based in Avignon, France. They fly a formation of four Yak 54s. Flight leader: Sarah Mozayeni Bosworth.[citation needed]
Jessica Cox becomes the first armless pilot to fly solo: local flight, May 10, 2008, to and from San Manuel (E77), Arizona; on October 10, 2008, from San Manuel (E77) to P13 San Carlos Apache (P13) and back to E77 Sport Pilot checkride.[261]
2009
February 12: The first all-African American, female flight crew flies from
Nashville to
Atlanta round-trip.[262]
Virginie Guyot of France is the first woman to lead a national aerobatic team.[1]
Kimberly Anyadike, aged 15, becomes the youngest African-American woman to pilot a plane solo across the United States.[263]
Patricia Mawuli Nyekodzi becomes the first woman in
Ghana to earn a civilian pilot's license and the first certified
Rotax engine mechanic in West Africa.[265]
Ângela Pedro Francisco becomes the first woman pilot of
Mozambique.[266]
2010
Nancy Lee Baker, longtime Fairbanks resident, receives a special honor from Sen.
Lisa Murkowski and Chief of Staff of the Air Force, Gen. Norton A. Schwartz. Baker, a
Women Airforce Service Pilot flew various military aircraft during
World War II, her contributions help pave the way for the integration of female pilots into the military.
Frances Smith, Gwendolyn Ritchie and Gayle Saunders all become the first women promoted to captain in
Bahamasair.[280]
The
Afghan Air Force starts training women pilots again. Sourya Saleh and Masooma Hussaini are trained as helicopter pilots.[281]Niloofar Rahmani is trained as a fixed-wing military pilot, the first Afghan woman in the military to fly planes.[282]
July: The first women
paratroopers in
Pakistan complete their training with Captain Kiran Ashraf the best of the 24 graduates.[290]
The largest head-down
freefly formation with only women is accomplished in
Arizona with 63 women from the United States, Canada, Mexico, England, France and Russia.[218]
First all-black, all-female crew operate regular American Airlines commercial flight August 20, 2022, from Dallas to Phoenix to celebrate the 100th anniversary of
Bessie Coleman being the first African American woman to obtain a commercial pilot's license in 1921 and for performing the first public flight by an African American woman in 1922. Coleman's great niece, Gigi Coleman, was the guest of honor on the commemorative flight.[311]
^
abBaca Gálvez, Perla (28 November 2006).
"La Mujer y la Aviación en el Perú" [Women and Aviation in Peru]. Air & Space Power Journal (in Spanish). Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama:
Air University. Archived from
the original on 29 December 2016. Retrieved 29 December 2016.
^Carvalho Oliva, Homero (1 August 2013).
"Amalia, nuestra gaviota" [Amalia, our seagull] (in Spanish). La Paz, Bolivia:
La Razón. Archived from
the original on 28 December 2016. Retrieved 28 December 2016.
^Vaz Pinto, Catarina (September 2013).
"Maria de Lourdes de Sá Teixeira (1907–1984)". Câmara Municipal de Lisboa (in Portuguese). Lisbon, Portugal: Council of Culture of the Lisbon City Council. Retrieved 13 January 2017.
^García Fabeiro, Navia (April 2015).
"La primera aviadora cubana" [The first woman aviator of Cuba] (PDF). Amor y Vida (in Spanish). Havana, Cuba: Arquidiócesis de San Cristóbal de La Habana: 11–12. Archived from
the original(PDF) on 22 December 2016. Retrieved 22 December 2016 – via
Newspaperarchive.com.
^
abGómez Urrutia, José Antonio (2016).
"Las pioneras de la Aviación Civil en Chile"(PDF). Ministro de Defensa Nacional (in Spanish). Santiago, Chile: Gobierno de Chile. p. 9. Archived from
the original(PDF) on 29 December 2016. Retrieved 29 December 2016.
^Gully, Patti (2007). Sisters of heaven: China's barnstorming aviatrixes: modernity, feminism, and popular imagination in Asia and the West. San Francisco: Long River Press. p. 352.
ISBN978-1-59265-075-0.
^
abFerraro, Jordan (2008).
"Lee Ya-Ching Papers". SOVA Smithsonian Institutions. Chantilly, Virginia: National Air and Space Museum Archives Division. Archived from
the original on 18 December 2016. Retrieved 18 December 2016.
^
abRodrigues, Luiz Eduardo Miranda José; de Lima, Cristiane Correia (2009).
"Mulheres Aviadoras, o Pioneirismo de Ada Rogato e Seus Feitos Históricos na Aviação Brasileira" [Women Aviators, the Pioneering Ada Rogato and Her Historical Mark on Brazilian Aviation] (PDF). Revista Eletrônica AeroDesign (in Portuguese). 1 (1). São Paulo, Brazil: Instituto Federal de Educação. Archived from
the original(PDF) on 21 December 2016. Retrieved 16 December 2016.
^张瑞芬 [Zhang Ruifen]. Danganju.Enping.gov.cn (in Simplified Chinese).
Enping,
Guangdong: Enping City Hall archives compound. 13 August 2007. Archived from
the original on 30 October 2010. Retrieved 30 December 2016.
^Cochrane, D; Ramirez, P.
"Janet Bragg". Women in Aviation and Space History. The Smithsonian. Retrieved 26 November 2016.
^"Mucky, la primera azafata de LAN" [Mucky, the first hostess of LAN] (in Spanish). Diario Azafata. 30 May 2016. Archived from
the original on 29 December 2016. Retrieved 29 December 2016.
^Beton Delègue, Elisabeth (20 June 2011).
"Discurso de la Embajadora (Condecoración de Margot Duhalde)" [Address by the Ambassador (Decorating Margot Duhalde)]. Amba France (in Spanish). Santiago, Chile: Embajada de Francia en Santiago de Chile. Archived from
the original on 7 March 2016. Retrieved 29 December 2016.
^Cipalla, Rita (March 29, 1987).
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^"Dorothy Layne McIntyre". Visionary Project. Washington, D. C.: The National Visionary Leadership Project. 2002. Archived from
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"Emily Howell Warner". Women in Aviation and Space History. Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Retrieved 28 November 2016.
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This is a timeline of
women in aviation which describes many of the firsts and achievements of women as pilots and other roles in
aviation. Women who are part of this list have piloted vehicles, including
hot-air balloons,
gliders,
airplanes,
dirigibles and
helicopters. Some women have been instrumental in support roles. Others have made a name for themselves as
parachutists and other forms of flight-related activities. This list encompasses women's achievements from around the globe.
Louise Bates makes the first parachute jump by a woman in the United States at
Cincinnati, Ohio.[5]
1886
Mary Myers of the
United States sets an altitude record with a balloon, rising four miles in the air.[6]
1888
Teresa Martinez y Perez is issued a
British patent for "navigable balloons".[7]
Clare Van Tassel makes the first parachute jump by a woman in the western United States with a jump from Park Van Tassel's balloon over
Los Angeles, California, on July 4.[5]
1890
Valerie Frietas (performing as Valerie Van Tassell) makes the first parachute jump by a woman in Australia at Newcastle, New South Wales.[5]
1892
Jeanette Rummary (performing as Jeanette Van Tassell) makes the first balloon flight and parachute jump in what is now Bangladesh at Dhaka.[5]
On 28 July 1906,
Marie Surcouf earned her aeronautical balloon pilot's license and on 23 August she made her first flight as a pilot aboard the balloon "Bengali", accompanied by Miss Gache. This was the first balloon flight with an all-woman crew.[9]
1908
May–June 1908: Mlle P. Van Pottelsberghe de la Poterie of Belgium flies with
Henri Farman on several short flights at an airshow in
Ghent, Belgium, becoming the first woman passenger on an airplane.[10]
September:
Thérèse Peltier, a sculptor, of France makes the first solo flight by a woman in an airplane in Turin, Italy, flying around 200 meters in a straight line about 2.5 m (8 ft 2 in) off the ground.[11] She had been taught by her partner
Léon Delagrange and gave up aviation after he was killed in a flying accident.
Marie Marvingt of France is the first woman to fly over the North Sea; piloting a balloon from Europe to England.[1]
Hélène Dutrieu of Belgium is the first woman to pilot a real solo flight in an airplane.
Raymonde de Laroche is the first French woman to pilot a solo flight in an airplane, she hops just over 300 meters.[13]
June 16: La Stella, the first aero club for women, opens in
Saint-Cloud near Paris.[14][15]
Katharine Wright, sister of Wilbur and Orville Wright, is instrumental in advancing her brothers' aviation business. She is the first woman invited to a meeting of the
Aero-Club de France and is awarded the
Légion d'honneur in recognition of her contributions to early aviation.
August 10:
Lydia Zvereva is the first
Russian and the world's eighth woman to earn a pilot's license.[17]
August 29:
Hilda Hewlett becomes the first
English woman to earn a pilot's license (
certificate No.122)[17] She later becomes the first woman to teach her child to fly in the same year.[1]
September 13:
Amelie Beese becomes the first
German and the world's ninth woman with a pilot's license.[17]
October 6:
Beatrix de Rijk is the first
Dutch and the world's tenth woman to earn a pilot's license.[17]
October 10:
Božena Laglerová is the first
Czech woman to earn her pilot's license (Austrian Aero Club, license number 37).[17]
Katherine Stinson and her mother start the Stinson Aviation Company.[13] Stinson also becomes the first commissioned woman
airmail pilot and first woman to do night
skywriting in the same year.[1]
Anesia Pinheiro Machado earns the Aero Club of Brazil Brevet No. 77 for her solo flight. She becomes the first woman pilot in
Brazil to carry passengers.[32]
Mary Riddle becomes the second
Native American to earn a pilot's license. She was a member of the
Clatsop and
Quinault Tribes. The first Native American woman was Bessie Coleman, though her legacy is not as a Native woman.[48]
March:
Berta Moraleda performs in an airshow. In May, having completed her training at the Escuela de Aviación Curtiss, she becomes the first woman pilot in
Cuba.[52][53]
May:
Laura Ingalls, a distance and stunt pilot from New York, set a stunt record of 980 consecutive, continuous loops in a little less than 4 hours at Hatbox Field in
Muskogee, Oklahoma.[54]
September:
Maryse Bastié of France breaks the sustained flight endurance record for women, remaining aloft for 38 hours.[56]
1931
August 5:
Katharina Paulus makes her final balloon flight at age 63. She had over 510 logged balloon flights and over 150 parachute jumps to her credit.[57]
Winifred Drinkwater (11 April 1913 – 6 October 1996) was a pioneering Scottish aviator and aeroplane engineer. She was the first woman in the world to hold a commercial pilot's licence.[59][60][61]
British-trained
Ruthy Tu becomes the first
Chinese woman to earn a pilot's license[17][62] and first woman to join the Chinese Army as a pilot.[63]
December 31:
Helen Richey becomes the first woman to pilot a commercial airliner in the United States.[75] She later resigned because she was not allowed into the all-male pilot's union and rarely allowed to fly.[76]
Mulumebet Emeru is the first woman pilot of Ethiopia. She was a student, but her flight training was interrupted by the
Italian invasion of Ethiopia.[82]
Inés Thomann becomes the first
Peruvian woman pilot, when she is licensed at the Escuela de Aviación de "Las Palmas".[28]
May 15:
Soviet A. Kondratyeva sets a record flight of 22 hours and 40 minutes from
Moscow to
Lukino Polie in a balloon.[57]
November 13:
María Calcaño Ruiz (also known as Mary Calcaño, later Keeler), becomes the first
Venezuelan woman pilot, attaining her license in
Long Island, New York. Her Venezuelan license is issued the following month.[86][87][88]
Major
Phyllis Dunning (née Phyllis Doreen Hooper) becomes the first South African woman to enter full-time military service as the Commander of the South African Women's Auxiliary Air Force (SAWAAF).[91]
September 25:
Andrée Borrel becomes the first female
SOE agent to parachute into German-occupied France and the first female secret agent known to have parachuted into enemy territory.[97]
1943
Janet Bragg becomes the first African American woman to earn a commercial pilot's license.[98]
Hazel Ying Lee, one of the first two Chinese Americans in the Women Air Force Service Pilots
Kim Kyung-Oh [
ko] of Korea is promoted as a captain in the ROK Air Force, becoming the sole woman pilot involved in the Korean War for the South Koreans.[117]
Betty Greene is the first woman to fly in
Sudan, having had to obtain a special dispensation from the Sudanese Parliament before a woman was allowed to fly.[121][122][123]
April 17: Eight stewardesses from the
flight attendant union speak out against the policy of retiring stewardesses at age 32 during a press conference.[118]
Maria Georgieva Atanasova, a Bulgarian pilot, became the first woman to land a passenger plane at London's Heathrow Airport, which happened under extreme conditions.
September 2: On Stewardesses' Day the
US House of Representatives helps show "public disfavor with airline age discrimination".[118]
Kucki Low,
Namibian pilot, is hired as the first woman commercial airline pilot in South Africa, flying for Namaqualand Airways.[147]
Bonnie Tiburzi is the first female pilot for
American Airlines and the first female pilot for a major American commercial airline,[148] as well as the first woman in the world to earn a Flight Engineer rating on a turbo-jet aircraft.[149]
September 16: The female crew set five world records on
IL-62 airliner (CCCP-86453), including the world record of flight range without landing (11,074 km or 6,881 mi).[156]
Barbara Adams of Guyana becomes the first licensed woman helicopter pilot in her country and first black CPL pilot in the United Kingdom after training at Oxford Air training, England.[160]
Olga Custodio becomes the first Hispanic female to graduate from the United States Air Force Undergraduate Pilot Training program and the first female T-38 Instructor Pilot at Laughlin AFB, Texas.[169][170]
July: Lynn Rippelmeyer and Bev Burns become first B-737 Captains at People Express, fly flight as co-captains (see photo).
1983
March 21: The first all-female Aircraft Carrier Landing. US Navy aircrew conducts C. O. D. operation mission! Lt Elizabeth Toedt, Aircraft Commander, Ltjg Cheryl A Martin, SIC, and Flight Crew AD3 Gina Greterman, and ADAN Robin Banks.
Continental Airlines "The first all-women crew to command a wide-bodied commercial aircraft touched down in Sydney yesterday – and they were on time. Captain Lennie Borenson, 39, first officer Dorothy Clegg, 26, and second officer Karlene Ciprtano, 25, taxied their Continental DC-10 to the terminal at 6am after leaving Hawaii about 8pm on Thursday (Sydney Time). The high flying trio were backed by 12 female cabin crew for the trip across the Pacific into aviation history."[187]
January 1:
Nivedita Bhasin of
Indian Airlines becomes the youngest woman pilot in world civil aviation history to command a commercial jet aircraft at the age of 26. Capt Nivedita Bhasin pilots IC-492 on the Bombay-Aurangabad-Udaipur sector.[192]
Eileen Collins became the first female pilot of the Space Shuttle in 1995 aboard STS-63, which involved a rendezvous between Discovery and the Russian space station Mir. In recognition of her achievement as the first female Shuttle Pilot, she received the Harmon Trophy. She was also the pilot for STS-84 in 1997.[214][circular reference]
Sarah Deal becomes the United States Marine Corps' first female aviator.[215]
1996
Maria Ziadie-Haddad becomes the first female airline captain in
Jamaica.[216]
Susan Mashibe of
Tanzania founds Via Aviation as a
fixed-base operator to support business jets and assist African clients with flight options, which do not require commercial air services and routing through Europe.[244][245]
The first civilian all-female aerobatic team in the world is formed: Patrouille Tranchant, based in Avignon, France. They fly a formation of four Yak 54s. Flight leader: Sarah Mozayeni Bosworth.[citation needed]
Jessica Cox becomes the first armless pilot to fly solo: local flight, May 10, 2008, to and from San Manuel (E77), Arizona; on October 10, 2008, from San Manuel (E77) to P13 San Carlos Apache (P13) and back to E77 Sport Pilot checkride.[261]
2009
February 12: The first all-African American, female flight crew flies from
Nashville to
Atlanta round-trip.[262]
Virginie Guyot of France is the first woman to lead a national aerobatic team.[1]
Kimberly Anyadike, aged 15, becomes the youngest African-American woman to pilot a plane solo across the United States.[263]
Patricia Mawuli Nyekodzi becomes the first woman in
Ghana to earn a civilian pilot's license and the first certified
Rotax engine mechanic in West Africa.[265]
Ângela Pedro Francisco becomes the first woman pilot of
Mozambique.[266]
2010
Nancy Lee Baker, longtime Fairbanks resident, receives a special honor from Sen.
Lisa Murkowski and Chief of Staff of the Air Force, Gen. Norton A. Schwartz. Baker, a
Women Airforce Service Pilot flew various military aircraft during
World War II, her contributions help pave the way for the integration of female pilots into the military.
Frances Smith, Gwendolyn Ritchie and Gayle Saunders all become the first women promoted to captain in
Bahamasair.[280]
The
Afghan Air Force starts training women pilots again. Sourya Saleh and Masooma Hussaini are trained as helicopter pilots.[281]Niloofar Rahmani is trained as a fixed-wing military pilot, the first Afghan woman in the military to fly planes.[282]
July: The first women
paratroopers in
Pakistan complete their training with Captain Kiran Ashraf the best of the 24 graduates.[290]
The largest head-down
freefly formation with only women is accomplished in
Arizona with 63 women from the United States, Canada, Mexico, England, France and Russia.[218]
First all-black, all-female crew operate regular American Airlines commercial flight August 20, 2022, from Dallas to Phoenix to celebrate the 100th anniversary of
Bessie Coleman being the first African American woman to obtain a commercial pilot's license in 1921 and for performing the first public flight by an African American woman in 1922. Coleman's great niece, Gigi Coleman, was the guest of honor on the commemorative flight.[311]
^
abBaca Gálvez, Perla (28 November 2006).
"La Mujer y la Aviación en el Perú" [Women and Aviation in Peru]. Air & Space Power Journal (in Spanish). Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama:
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