Jerrie Cobb

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Jerrie Cobb next to a Mercury spaceship capsule

Geraldyn "Jerrie" M. Cobb (born March 5, 1931 in Norman , Oklahoma ; † March 18, 2019 in Sun City Center , Florida ) was an American pilot . She was also a member of the Mercury 13 , a group of women in the framework of a privately funded non- NASA selected -Programms to undergo the same medical and psychological tests as the Mercury Seven - astronauts . The Mercury 13 test results were designed to show that women had the same aptitude for the astronaut program as men. Cobb used her good test results and popularity to fight for women to be approved as astronauts at NASA in the 1960s, but to no avail at the time. It was not until 1978 that NASA changed the requirements for astronauts, so that women also had a chance to apply.

youth

Jerrie Cobb was the daughter of Lt. Col. William Harvey Cobb and Helena Butler Stone Cobb. While growing up in Oklahoma, Cobb took up flying at an early age through her father's encouragement . Cobb flew at the age of twelve years for the first time on an airplane, in Waco - biplane her father from 1936 with an open cockpit . By the age of 17, when she was a student at Oklahoma City Classen High School, Cobb had already earned her private pilot's license. She received her license as a commercial pilot a year later. Some time later, Cobb also acquired a pilot's license for multi-engine aircraft, an instrument flying license, a flight instructor license, a ground instructor license and a license for commercial pilots.

After graduating from high school, Cobb played softball for a year , first with Oklahoma City's Perfecut Manufacturing women's team, then with the Oklahoma City Downtown Chevrolet Sooner Queens. With financial support from the Sooner Queens, she was able to purchase a decommissioned Fairchild PT-23 from WWII. In 1948 Cobb attended Oklahoma College for Women, but dropped out after a year with her parents' consent.

Career as a pilot and record holder

After World War II, female pilots faced sexual discrimination and the return of many qualified male pilots, and they were forced to take on less attractive jobs such as agricultural aviation or pipeline flights . Despite good qualifications, Cobb struggled to find a good job as a pilot. Her breakthrough came when Jack Ford, President of Fleetway Inc., hired her to ship planes to South America. Cobb delivered aircraft for Fleetway worldwide.

In 1959, at age 28, Cobb became a pilot and manager for the Aero Design and Engineering Company, Oklahoma City, one of the largest aircraft manufacturers in the United States. Cobb was one of the few female executives in aviation at the time. The Aero Design and Engineering Company supported Cobb in their record attempts and also provided the Aero Commander aircraft that Cobb used to set their world altitude record.

In her 20s, Cobb set new world records for speed, distance and absolute height. By 1960, she had accumulated 7,000 flight hours and held three flight world records: the world record for non-stop long-distance flights in 1959, the world record in speed for light aircraft in 1959, and a world record in altitude for light aircraft of 37,010 feet in 1960. She was the first woman to fly at the Paris Air Show , the largest aviation exhibition in the world. She was also named Woman of the Year in Aviation by the Women's National Aeronautical Association in 1959 and Pilot of the Year by the National Pilots Association. She was also awarded the Amelia Earhart Gold Medal of Merit. The Life Magazine led one of nine women among the "100 most important young people in the United States." Cobb has received numerous honors in the aviation industry, including the FAI's Gold Wings Award .

Mercury 13

Jerrie Cobb underwent medical and psychological tests in 1960 that were used to select the first seven astronauts in the Mercury program . Randy Lovelace, who helped develop the tests for the male astronauts in the Mercury program, invited Cobb to undergo the same tests. In addition to Cobb, 24 other female pilots were medically tested in the same way, of which 12 other women besides Cobb passed the tests. These women later came to be known as Mercury 13 . The tests were not an official NASA program, but were carried out on the initiative of Randy Lovelace in his private clinic with the financial support of entrepreneur and pilot Jackie Cochrane . Cobb passed all tests and was in the top 2% of all astronaut candidates of both sexes.

When the test results became known, Cobb used the media attention to promote the admission of women to the astronaut program. At the time, NASA requirements for entry to the astronaut program included that applicants should be military test pilots, have experience in high-speed military test flights, and hold an engineering degree. In an emergency, the astronauts should be able to take control as pilots. This meant that women were de facto excluded from the astronaut program, because although there were a large number of well-qualified female pilots in the 1960s, women were not allowed to work as military test pilots or fly jet fighters at the time.

When the testing program for the Mercury 13 was stopped because the American Navy refused to make its test labs available for testing for female astronauts, Cobb began a political campaign to encourage women to join the astronaut program. Among other things, she tried to talk to Vice President Lyndon Johnson together with Janey Hart, one of the Mercury 13 , but without being able to convince him. Vice President Lyndon Johnson's assistant Liz Carpenter even drafted a letter to NASA Administrator James Webb asking questions about the requirements for astronauts. The Vice President did not send it off. Instead he wrote across it "Let's stop this now!" (Eng. "Let's stop this now !")

Cobb and Hart managed to have a hearing organized in 1962 by Congress, the Special Subcommittee on the Selection of Astronauts, to see if women were discriminated against in the astronaut program. Cobb's arguments failed to convince the committee, with Cobb's view in the early 1960s (before the women's movement) encountering a social climate in which women were seen primarily as housewives and mothers. Astronaut John Glenn said at the hearing that "men go and fight wars and the planes fly" and that "women are not represented in this field is a fact of social order".

Only a few months later, the Soviet Union sent Valentina Tereschkowa, the first woman into space. Tereshkova made fun of Cobb for her religious views, but at the same time praised her courage.

In the 1970s, the social climate had changed so much that only white and male astronaut crews, who were only recruited from the military, were no longer accepted by society. NASA was criticized for its one-sided recruitment policy, so that in 1978 it changed its regulations for the astronaut program and also specifically encouraged women and members of non-white ethnic groups to apply with an advertising campaign. The first American woman in space was the astrophysicist Sally Ride in 1983 (as Mission Specialist ), the first American woman pilot in space was Lt. Col. Eileen Collins . When Eileen Collins took off into space in 1999, many aviation pioneers were invited by NASA as a tribute to their accomplishments, including the Mercury 13.

In 1999, the US National Organization for Women ran an unsuccessful campaign to send Cobb into space to study the effects of aging, just as 77-year-old astronaut John Glenn was sent into space.

Later life as a missionary

After the prospects of participating in an astronaut program were dashed, Cobb began a second career in the 1960s. For more than 30 years she worked in the mission in South America, where she completed humanitarian flights, e. B. to transport supplies to indigenous tribes and to measure new flight routes in remote areas. Cobb has been honored for her work by the Brazilian, Colombian, Ecuadorian, French and Peruvian governments. She also received the following honors for her humanitarian work:

  • 1973 Harmon International Trophy for "The Worlds Best Woman Pilot" by President Richard Nixon during a ceremony at the White House
  • Pioneer Woman Award for her “courageous frontier spirit” when she flew over the Amazon jungle to support Indian tribes
  • 1979 Bishop Wright Air Industry Award for "Humanitarian Contributions to Modern Aviation"
  • 2000 "Women in Aviation International Pioneer Hall of Fame"

In 1981 she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her humanitarian work. In 2007 she received, along with the other seven surviving members of the “Mercury 13”, an honorary doctorate in natural sciences from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.

literature

  • Martha Ackmann: The Mercury 13: The Untold Story of Thirteen American Women and the Dream of Space Flight . Random House, 2003, ISBN 0-375-50744-2 .
  • Jerrie Cobb: Jerrie Cobb: Solo pilot . Jerrie Cobb Foundation, Sun City Center, FL, 1997, ISBN 978-0-9659924-0-4 .
  • Jerrie Cobb, Jane Rieker: Woman into Space: The Jerrie Cobb Story . Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1963.
  • Tanya Lee Stone: Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream . Candlewick Press, Somerville, MA, 2009, ISBN 978-0-7636-4502-1 .
  • Stephanie Nolen: Promised the Moon: The Untold Story of the First Women in the Space Race . Avalon Publishing, New York 2011, ISBN 978-1-56858-319-8 .
  • Margaret Weitekamp: Right Stuff, Wrong Sex: America's First Women in Space Program . Johns Hopkins University Press, 2004, ISBN 0-8018-7994-9 .

Web links

Commons : Jerrie Cobb  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Hargrave, The Pioneers Monash University , Australia, last accessed July 7, 2018
  2. ↑ collectSpace
  3. ↑ Margaret A. Weitekamp: Right Stuff, Wrong Sex: America's First Women in Space Program . Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore / London 2004, ISBN 0-8018-8394-6 , pp. 187 .
  4. ↑ a b c d Jerrie Cobb . In: David Darling: Internet Encyclopedia of Science, Aviation Pioneers , last accessed July 7, 2018.
  5. ^ A b Martha Ackmann: The Mercury 13: The True Story of Thirteen Women and the Dream of Space Flight . Random House, New York 2003, ISBN 978-0-375-75893-5 , pp. 23-24 .
  6. ↑ Cobb, Jerrie 2003 , University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma, last accessed July 7, 2018.
  7. ↑ a b Margaret A. Weitekamp: Right Stuff, Wrong Sex: America's First Women in Space Program . Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore / London 2004, ISBN 0-8018-8394-6 , pp. 59, 73 .
  8. ^ Stephanie Nolen: Promised the Moon: The Untold Story of the First Women in the Space Race . Avalon Publishing, New York 2011, ISBN 978-1-56858-319-8 , pp. 2 .
  9. ^ Martha Ackmann: The Mercury 13: The True Story of Thirteen Women and the Dream of Space Flight . Random House, New York 2003, ISBN 978-0-375-75893-5 , pp. 51-83 .
  10. ↑ Jerrie Cobb Poses beside Mercury Capsule. In: Great Images in NASA (Archived Copy) . Archived from the original on December 24, 2011. Retrieved on August 15, 2017.
  11. ↑ Tanya Lee Stone: Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream . Candlewick Press, Somerville, MA, 2009, p. 64.
  12. ↑ Dwayne Day: You've come a long way, baby! In: The Space Review. Accessed July 7, 2018
  13. ^ Stephanie Nolen: Promised the Moon: The untold story of the first women in the space race. Penguin Books Canada, Toronto 2002, p. 300.
  14. ↑ Qualifications for Astronauts: Hearings before the Special Subcommittee on the Selection of Astronauts, US House of Representatives, 87th Cong. (1962) . Archived from the original on December 11, 2015. Retrieved July 7, 2018.
  15. ^ Martha Ackmann: The Mercury 13: The True Story of Thirteen Women and the Dream of Space Flight . Random House, New York 2003, ISBN 978-0-375-75893-5 , pp. 149-171 .
  16. ↑ Girl Cosmonaut Ridicules Praying of US Woman Pilot . In: The Racine Journal-Times , July 7, 1963, p. 5. Retrieved July 7, 2018. 
  17. ↑ Margaret Weitekamp: Right Stuff, Wrong Sex: America's First Women in Space Program . Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore / London 2004, ISBN 0-8018-8394-6 , pp. 187 .
  18. ^ Martha Ackmann: The Mercury 13: The True Story of Thirteen Women and the Dream of Space Flight . Random House, New York 2003, ISBN 978-0-375-75893-5 , pp. 183-184 .
  19. ↑ Margaret Weitekamp: Right Stuff, Wrong Sex: America's First Women in Space Program . Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore / London 2004, ISBN 0-8018-8394-6 , pp. 188 .
  20. ↑ UW Oshkosh: Mercury 13 biography , University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh, last accessed July 7, 2018
  21. ↑ Albin Krebs: 5 Top Pilots Cited . In: New York Times , September 21, 1973, accessed July 7, 2018.
  22. ↑ 2000 Pioneer Hall of Fame: Women in Aviation, International . Archived from the original on January 2, 2010. Retrieved July 7, 2018.
  23. ↑ Honorary doctorate for Jerrie Cobb , University of Wisconsin – Oshkosh, last accessed July 7, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Cobb, Jerrie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cobb, Geraldyn M.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American pilot
DATE OF BIRTH March 5, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH Norman (Oklahoma)
DATE OF DEATH 18th March 2019
Place of death Sun City Center , Florida