Jacqueline Cochran

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jacqueline Cochran around 1940
Jacqueline Cochran in the cockpit of a P-40
Jacqueline Cochran when she was sworn in as a NASA advisor (1961)

Jacqueline Cochran , called Jackie (born May 11, 1906 in Muscogee , Florida , † August 9, 1980 in Indio , California ) was one of the most famous aviators in the United States . She was the first woman to break the sound barrier. In alternation with the French Jacqueline Auriol , she was considered the "fastest woman in the world".

Life

There are contradicting statements about her biography. She herself claimed to have grown up as a foundling with foster parents. According to legend, she should have chosen her name from the phone book . At the age of eight, Jackie reportedly had to leave school and work as a maid and as a runner in a wool mill. At eleven, she came to a beauty salon as a maid, where she learned the trade of hairdressing. At 14, she quit her job to train as a nurse. She then worked as a doctor's practice assistant until she became co-owner of a beauty salon at the age of 19. Soon she was teaching at the Cosmetics School in Philadelphia . She then worked alternately in New York and Miami . In a Miami restaurant where she worked, she met Floyd Odlum , president of the Atlas Aircraft Plant. Odlum supported her in her desire to become a freelance traveling cosmetics seller. He advised her to learn to fly and to keep her appointments by plane instead of the car in order to stay competitive.

After just three weeks of lessons on Long Island , Jackie Cochran obtained her pilot's license in 1932. Immediately afterwards, she attended a flight course in California, where she trained with US naval aviators. Now she flew bombers and fighter planes in addition to civil and commercial aircraft.

In 1934 she was the first woman to take part in the MacRobertson Air Race from London to Melbourne with a Granville Gee Bee R-6H . In 1935 she was again the first woman to take part in the Bendix Trophy from Los Angeles to Cleveland (Ohio) . She started her own business and married Floyd Odlum in 1936.

In 1938 she became the first woman to win the Bendix Transcontinental Air Race. In her long-distance prototype Seversky AP-7 (1200 hp) she needed 8 hours, 10 minutes and 31 seconds to cover the 3,286-kilometer route.

Second World War

When the USA entered the Second World War in 1941, Jackie Cochran volunteered to transfer aircraft to Great Britain for the United States Army Air Forces , but was initially turned away. After she was able to convince her future colleagues of her skills, she was finally accepted into the transfer squadron as the first woman. She crossed the Atlantic Ocean more than 100 times during World War II. From 1943 she took over the management of the "Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron" founded in 1942, which from then on went over to the WASP . Under Cochran's leadership, the squadron lost only 38 of its 1,074 well-trained female pilots during the entire war. When the Japanese forces deployed in the Philippines surrendered in 1945 , Jackie Cochran was present as a reporter for an American magazine. In this role she also observed the Nuremberg Trials .

After the war

On May 18, 1953 started with a Cochran of the Canadian Air Force loaned F-86 Saber from Rogers Dry Lake , reached a speed of 1049 km / h and thus exceeded the first woman Mach 1. The US Air Force -Pilot Charles "Chuck" Yeager , who had been the first to break the sound barrier six years earlier, flew next to her on this successful record attempt in an escort aircraft. In 1954 she published her book The Stars at Noon ("My way to the stars"), in which she told her previous life.

Between 1961 and 1964, Cochran and her rival French pilot Jacqueline Auriol alternately received the unofficial designation "fastest woman in the world". Cochran's last speed record of 2300 km / h was no longer surpassed by the French.

In 1956, Cochran ran for a seat in the United States House of Representatives as a member of the Republican Party . In the 29th congressional electoral district of California, it was defeated by Democrat Dalip Singh Saund , three percentage points behind. After that she did not seek any more political office.

In 1958, Jacqueline Cochran was elected President of the FAI . As the first woman ever, she was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton, Ohio in 1971. In the same year she made her last flight in Paris . She had to give up flying because of a heart disease.

In the 1960s, Cochran provided financial support for the Mercury 13 program. It was an astronaut training program for women, but it was soon discontinued.

Jackie Cochran had no children of his own but adopted five orphans . She died with her family on August 9, 1980 at the age of 74 in Indio, east of Palm Springs (California) .

In 1985 the Venus crater Cochran was named after her.

Aviation achievements

  • 1938 - First woman to win the Bendix Transcontinental Air Race
  • 1939 - World altitude record for women and first instrument landing by a woman
  • 1953 - Fastest woman in the world, speed record for jet planes over 100 km, was the first woman to break the sound barrier
  • 1961–1964 - Fastest woman in the world (alternating with Jacqueline Auriol)

literature

Web links

Commons : Jacqueline Cochran  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum: "Women in Aviation and Space History: Jacqueline Cochran"
  2. ^ Ernst Probst : Jacqueline Cochran. The "fastest woman in the world". GRIN-Verlag, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-656-85162-2 , pp. 6-7.
  3. ^ Ernst Probst: Jacqueline Cochran. The "fastest woman in the world". GRIN-Verlag, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-656-85162-2 , p. 10.
  4. ↑ www.chuckyeager.org: "May 18, 1953: The sound barrier was broken by a woman for the first time."
  5. ^ Ernst Probst: Jacqueline Cochran. The "fastest woman in the world". GRIN-Verlag, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-656-85162-2 , p. 12.
  6. ^ Cochran in the Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature of the IAU (WGPSN) / USGS
personal data
SURNAME Cochran, Jacqueline
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American pilot, the first woman to break the sound barrier
DATE OF BIRTH May 11, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Muscogee , Florida
DATE OF DEATH August 9, 1980
Place of death Indio , California