Jacqueline "Jackie" Cochran

During her aviation career, Jackie Cochran set more speed and altitude records than any of her contemporaries, male or female. She not only became one of the world's great aviatrixes but also one of the best pilots of either gender. Throughout her life, Cochran demonstrated an incredible drive; she wanted to succeed at everything she did. Remarkably, Cochran, unlike many famous aviators, did not originally show an interest in learning to fly. In fact, she obtained her pilot's license only so that she could peddle her own line of cosmetics across the country. Nevertheless, Cochran was a true aviation pioneer.

Cochran's early childhood is a bit of a mystery. She claimed to have been an orphan with no exact record of her birth (although some debate the issue) Historians consequently disagree about when she was born, with dates ranging from 1905 all the way to 1913. Although her birth date is uncertain, it is clear that Cochran grew up in poverty in the rural panhandle of Florida.

Despite the mystery surrounding her early years, Cochran's later childhood is a bit clearer. At some point, she began working as a beautician at a local hairdresser's. Because she enjoyed the work, she decided she wanted to eventually start her own line of cosmetics. In 1929, Cochran moved to New York City, where she hoped salon customers would fully appreciate her skills. She also hoped that her move would help her realize her dream of becoming a cosmetics manufacturer.

New York City was kind to Cochran. She got a job at a fashionable salon in upscale Saks Fifth Avenue and customers raved about her. Some even paid her to travel with them. She made good money and was rising well above her early circumstances. Then, while in Miami in 1932, Cochran met millionaire Floyd Bostwick Odlum. He was immediately attracted to her and would eventually ask her to marry him.

It was Odlum who first interested Cochran in learning to fly. Cochran had told Odlum of her dream of starting a cosmetics line and he suggested that she was going to "need wings" to cover the territory necessary to sustain a cosmetics business. Cochran took Odlum's advice seriously and obtained her pilot's license after only three weeks of instruction. For Cochran, flight provided an opportunity for a new life. Although she kept her cosmetics business, to her, "a beauty operator ceased to exist and an aviator was born."

After sharpening her skills at a California flight school, Cochran entered her first major aviation competition in 1934--the MacRobertson Race from London to Melbourne. Unfortunately, she and her co-pilot, Wesley Smith, had to abandon the race because of problems with their plane's flaps. Although Cochran was disappointed, she continued competing. In 1935, she entered the famous Bendix cross-country race from Los Angeles to Cleveland, but once again had to drop out due to mechanical problems. Ironically, in spite of her ambitions, it turned out that Cochran's major accomplishment of the year was the launch of her own cosmetics company.

In 1937, Cochran's luck in the air changed dramatically. She finished first in the women's division of the Bendix and third overall. Cochran also set a national air speed record from New York to Miami in 4 hours, 12 minutes, 27 seconds, and she achieved a new women's national speed record at 203.895 miles per hour (328 kilometers per hour). As a result, Cochran received the Clifford Harmon Trophy for the most outstanding woman pilot of the year. By the end of her career, she would obtain a total of 15 Harmon Trophies.

In September 1938, Cochran demonstrated the full depth of her piloting skills by winning the Bendix outright. She flew a Seversky fighter plane to victory in 8 hours, 10 minutes, 31 seconds. Cochran finished first overall, even beating all of the men in the race. Thanks to her victory, she also received the William Mitchell Memorial Award, an honor given to the person who makes the most outstanding contribution to aviation during a given year.

Shortly after her Bendix win, Cochran set several more records. In March 1939, she achieved a new women's national altitude record at 30,052 feet (9,160 meters), and then a few months later, set two new world records for the fastest times over a 1000-kilometer course and a 2000-kilometer course. By the beginning of the 1940s, Cochran had achieved a multitude of altitude and speed records.

When World War II began, Cochran traveled to England to observe how female pilots were helping the British war effort. She had been contemplating the idea of a fleet of women aviators who could fly military aircraft in support of general operations. The idea was to free up men so they could fight in the war, instead of dealing with such tasks as ferrying military planes and providing basic aerial training. While overseas, Cochran saw that women could effectively take on the more routine tasks of military flight, and she lobbied the U.S. government to create just such an outfit.

In 1942, Cochran got her wish. Army Air Force General Henry "Hap" Arnold asked her to organize the Women's Flying Training Detachment (WFTD) to train women pilots to handle basic military flight support. The following year, Cochran received an appointment to lead the Women's Air Force Service Pilots, or WASPs. The WASPs were essentially two groups in one--the WFTD, and another organization called the Women's Auxiliary Ferry Squadron (WAFS), a group responsible for delivering military planes to their base of operations.

The WASPs proved invaluable to the war effort. They transported planes overseas, tested various military aircraft, taught aerial navigation, and provided target towing. Under Cochran's leadership, the WASPs grew to well over 1000 members, but despite their usefulness, the organization did not last long. In December 1944, Congress disbanded the WASPs because scores of male pilots complained they were being put out of work. During their brief existence, the WASPs delivered approximately 12,650 planes and flew more than 60 million miles (97 million kilometers). In recognition of her leadership, Cochran received the U.S. Distinguished Service Medal, the first civilian woman ever to do so.

After the war, Cochran returned to racing and setting records. In 1950, she set a new international speed record for propeller-driven aircraft by flying a P-51 at 447.47 miles per hour (719 kilometers per hour). Then, in 1953, while flying a Sabrejet F-86, she became the first woman to break Mach 1, or the sound barrier. Interestingly, in the late 1950s, as the U.S. human spaceflight program was getting started, Cochran was among 13 women who lobbied to become a female astronaut. The idea, however, did not came to fruition then because of the political volatility of the issue.

In the 1960s, Cochran continued to set records. Many of these new marks came while she was working as a test pilot for Northrop and Lockheed. In 1961, she established a string of eight major speed records in a Northrop T-38. Three years later, she set three new speed records in a Lockheed 104 jet Starfighter. During one of her runs, she flew more than 1,429 miles per hour (2,300 kilometers per hour), the fastest a women had ever flown.

In the 1970s, Cochran finally slowed down due to a serious cardiac condition. During the decade, she received numerous awards and honorary degrees in recognition of her outstanding accomplishments. In August 1980, after struggling with failing health, Cochran died in Indio, California.

Clearly, Jackie Cochran was an exceptional pilot and an exceptional woman. During her lifetime, she received more than 200 awards and trophies and set more speed and altitude records than any other pilot. In addition to her American aviation awards, Cochran also garnered numerous foreign honors, including the French Legion of Honor and a Gold Medal from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale. Interestingly, Cochran also excelled in the cosmetics business, which she had continued to run. During the 1950s, the Associated Press voted her "Woman of the Year in Business" two years in a row. And, as if these accomplishments were not enough, she also advised the U.S. Air Force, the FAA, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and served as a board member for museums and nonprofit organizations. In the end, Jackie Cochran, one of the world's best pilots, influenced the world well beyond aviation. From the 1930s onward, she left an indelible mark on aviation history.

Jacqueline "Jackie" Cochran was a leading aviatrix who promoted an independent Air Force and was the director of women's flying training for the Women's Airforce Service Pilots program during World War II. She held more speed, altitude and distance records than any other male or female pilot in aviation history at the time of her death.

She was born between 1905 and 1908 in Florida. Orphaned at early age, she spent her childhood moving from one town to another with her foster family. At 13, she became a beauty operator in the salon she first cleaned. Eventually she rose to the top of her profession, owning a prestigious salon, and establishing her own cosmetics company. She learned to fly at the suggestion of her future husband, millionaire Floyd Odlum, to travel more efficiently. In 1932, she received her license after only three weeks of lessons and immediately pursued advanced instruction. Cochran set three major flying records in 1937 and won the prestigious Bendix Race in 1938.

As a test pilot, she flew and tested the first turbo-supercharger ever installed on an aircraft engine in 1934. During the following two years, she became the first person to fly and test the forerunner to the Pratt & Whitney 1340 and 1535 engines. In 1938, she flew and tested the first wet wing ever installed on an aircraft. With Dr. Randolph Lovelace, she helped design the first oxygen mask, and then became the first person to fly above 20,000 feet wearing one.

In 1940, she made the first flight on the Republic P-43, and recommended a longer tail wheel installation, which was later installed on all P-47 aircraft. Between 1935 and 1942, she flew many experimental flights for Sperry Corp., testing gyro instruments.

Cochran was hooked on flying. She set three speed records, won the Clifford Burke Harmon trophy three times and set a world altitude record of 33,000 feet – all before 1940. In the year 1941, Cochran captured an aviation first when she became the first woman pilot to pilot a military bomber across the Atlantic Ocean.

With World War II on the horizon, Cochran talked Eleanor Roosevelt into the necessity of women pilots in the coming war effort. Cochran was soon recruiting women pilots to ferry planes for the British Ferry Command, and became the first female trans-Atlantic bomber pilot. While Cochran was in Britain, another renowned female pilot, Nancy Harkness Love, suggested the establishment of a small ferrying squadron of trained female pilots. The proposal was ultimately approved. Almost simultaneously, Gen. H.H. Arnold asked Cochran to return to the U.S. to establish a program to train women to fly. In August of 1943, the two schemes merged under Cochran's leadership. They became the Women's Airforce Service Pilots.

She recruited more than 1,000 Women's Airforce Service Pilots and supervised their training and service until they were disbanded in 1944. More than 25,000 applied for training, 1,830 were accepted and 1,074 made it through a very tough program to graduation. These women flew approximately 60 million miles for the Army Air Force with only 38 fatalities, or about 1 for every 16,000 hours flown. Cochran was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for services to her country during World War II.

She went on to be a press correspondent and was present at the surrender of Japanese General Yamashita, was the first U.S. woman to set foot in Japan after the war, and then went on to China, Russia, Germany and the Nuremburg trials. In 1948 she became a member of the independent Air Force as a lieutenant colonel in the Reserve. She had various assignments which included working on sensitive projects important to defense.

Flying was still her passion, and with the onset of the jet age, there were new planes to fly. Access to jet aircraft was mainly restricted to military personnel, but Cochran, with the assistance of her friend Gen. Chuck Yeager, became the first woman to break the sound barrier in an F-86 Sabre Jet owned by the company in 1953, and went on to set a world speed record of 1,429 mph in 1964.

Cochran retired from the Reserve in 1970 as a colonel. After heart problems and a pacemaker stopped her fast-flying activities at the age of 70, Cochran took up soaring. In 1971, she was named Honorary Fellow, Society of Experimental Test Pilots and inducted into the Aviation Hall of Fame.

She wrote her autobiography, "The Autobiography of the Greatest Woman Pilot in Aviation History" with Maryann B. Brinley (Bantam Books). After her husband died in 1976, her health deteriorated rapidly and she died Aug. 10, 1980.

Sources compiled from the Air Force Flight Test Center Office of History and Air Force Reserve Command.

Jacqueline Cochran
Born	11 May 1906(1906-05-11) Muscogee, Florida
Died	9 August 1980 (aged 74) Indio, California
Occupation	Aviator, test pilot, spokesperson, and businessperson
Spouse	Jack Cochran Floyd Bostwick Odlum

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Jacqueline Cochran c. 1943

Jacqueline Cochran (11 May 1906 – 9 August 1980) was a pioneer American aviator, considered to be one of the most gifted race pilots of her generation. Her contributions to the formation of the wartime Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) and WASP (Women Airforce Service Pilots) were also significant.

Her Early Life

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Jackie as a child c. 1908

Bessie Lee Pittman was born near Mobile, Alabama, the youngest of the five children of Mary (Grant) and Ira Pittman, a skilled millwright who moved from town to town setting up and reworking saw mills. While not rich, Jackie's childhood living in small-town Florida was similar to most other families of that time and place. Contrary to some accounts, there was always food on the table and she was not adopted, as she often claimed.^[1]

Jackie married Robert Cochran, a young aircraft mechanic from the nearby naval base at Pensacola, at a young age. They were married in Blakeley, Georgia on November 13, 1920. Jackie gave birth to Robert Cochran Jr. four months later. The couple and child moved to Miami where they lived for four years. Filing for divorce, Jackie moved back to northwest Florida, settling in DeFuniak Springs, where her parents were then living. Not quite five years old, Robert Cochran Jr. died a tragic death after he set his clothes on fire while playing alone in the backyard.

Jackie (Bessie Lee) then became a hairdresser and got a job in Pensacola, eventually winding up in New York City. There, she used her looks and driving personality to get a job at a prestigious salon at Saks Fifth Avenue. Somewhere along the line, she chose to change her name from Mrs Bessie Cochran to Miss Jackie Cochran.

Although Jackie denied her family and her past, she remained in touch with her family and provided for them over the years. Some of her family even moved to her ranch in California after she remarried. However, they were instructed to always say they were her adopted family. Jackie apparently wanted to hide from the public the early chapters of her life and was successful in doing so until after her death.

Only later did she meet Floyd Bostwick Odlum, middle-aged founder of Atlas Corp. and CEO of RKO in Hollywood. Widely reputed to be one of the ten richest men in the world, Odlum quickly became enamored with Jackie and offered to help her establish a cosmetics business^[2].

After a friend offered her a ride in an aircraft, a thrilled Jackie Cochran began taking flying lessons at Roosevelt Airfield, Long Island in the early 1930s. She learned to fly an airplane in just three weeks. A natural, she quickly soloed and within two years obtained her commercial pilot's license. Odlum, whom she married in 1936 after his divorce, was an astute financier and savvy marketer who recognized the value of publicity for her business. Calling her line of cosmetics "Wings," she flew her own aircraft around the country promoting her products^[3]. Years later, Odlum used his Hollywood connections to get Marilyn Monroe to endorse her line of lipstick.

Her Contributions To Aviation

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1938 Bendix Race.

Known by her friends as "Jackie," and maintaining the Cochran name, she flew her first major race in 1934. In 1937, she was the only woman to compete in the Bendix race. She worked with Amelia Earhart to open the race for women.^[4] That year, she also set a new woman's national speed record. By 1938, she was considered the best female pilot in the United States. She had won the Bendix and set a new transcontinental speed record as well as altitude records (by this time she was no longer just breaking woman's records but was setting overall records).^[5] She was the first woman to break the sound barrier (with Chuck Yeager right on her wing), the first woman to fly a jet across the ocean, and the first woman to fly a bomber across the Atlantic. She won five Harmon Trophies as the outstanding woman pilot in the world. Sometimes called the "Speed Queen," at the time of her death, no pilot, man or woman, held more speed, distance or altitude records in aviation history, than Jackie Cochran.^[6]

Before the United States joined World War II, she was part of "Wings for Britain" that delivered American built aircraft to Britain and she became the first woman to fly a bomber (a Lockheed Hudson V) across the Atlantic. In Britain, she volunteered her services to the Royal Air Force. For several months she worked for the British Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA), recruiting qualified women pilots in the United States and taking them to England where they joined the Air Transport Auxiliary.^[7]In September 1940, with the war raging throughout Europe, Jackie Cochran wrote to Eleanor Roosevelt to introduce the proposal of starting a women's flying division in the Army Air Forces. She felt that qualified women pilots could do all of the domestic, noncombat aviation jobs necessary in order to release more male pilots for combat. She pictured herself in command of these women, with the same standings as Oveta Culp Hobby, who was then in charge of the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC). (The WAAC was given full military status on 1 July 1943, thus making them part of the Army. At the same time, the unit was renamed Women's Army Corps [WAC].)

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Jackie with General Hap Arnold.

Also in 1940, Cochran wrote a letter to Colonel Robert Olds, who was helping to organize the Ferrying Command for the Air Corps at the time. (Ferrying Command was the air-transport service of the Army Air Corps; the command was renamed Air Transport Command in June 1942). In the letter, Cochran suggested that women pilots be employed to fly noncombat missions for the new command. In early 1941, Colonel Olds asked Cochran to find out how many women pilots there were in the United States, what their flying times were, their skills, their interest in flying for the country, and personal information about them. She used records from the Civil Aeronautics Administration to gather the data.

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Jackie (center) with WASP trainees.

In spite of pilot shortages, General Henry H. "Hap" Arnold was the person who needed to be convinced that women pilots were the solution to his staffing problems. Arnold was placed in command of the US Army Air Forces when it was created from the US Army Air Corps in June 1941. He knew that women were being used successfully in the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) in England. Also in June 1941, Arnold suggested that Cochran take a group of qualified female pilots to see how the British were doing. He promised her that no decisions regarding women flying for the USAAF would be made until she returned.

When General Arnold asked Cochran to go to Britain to study the ATA, she asked seventy-six of the most qualified female pilots – identified during the research she had done earlier for Colonel Robert Olds – to come along and fly for the ATA. Qualifications for these women were high – at least 300 hours of flying time, but most of the women pilots had over 1,000 hours. Their dedication was high as well, they had to foot the bill for travel from New York for an interview and to Montreal for a physical exam and flight check. Those that made it to Canada found out that the washout rate was also high. Twenty-five women passed the tests, and two months later, in March 1942 they went to Britain with Cochran to join the ATA.

The women who flew in the ATA were a little reluctant to go because they wanted to be flying for (and in) the United States, but those that went became the first American women to fly military aircraft.

Following America's entry into the War, in 1942 she was made director of women's flight training for the United States.^[8] As head of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) she supervised the training of more than 1000 women pilots. For her war efforts, she received the Distinguished Service Medal^[9]^[10] and the Distinguished Flying Cross

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Jackie Cochran in the cockpit of the Canadair F-86 with Chuck Yeager.

At war's end, she was hired by a magazine to report on global postwar events. In this role, she witnessed Japanese General Tomoyuki Yamashita's surrender in the Philippines, then was the first (non-Japanese) woman to enter Japan after the War and attended the Nuremberg Trials in Germany.

Postwar, she began flying the new jet engine aircraft, going on to set numerous records, most conspicuously, she became the first woman pilot to "go supersonic."

Encouraged by then-Major Chuck Yeager, with whom she shared a lifelong friendship, on May 18, 1953, at Rogers Dry Lake, California, Cochran flew a Canadair F-86 Sabre jet borrowed from the Royal Canadian Air Force at an average speed of 652.337 mph, becoming the first woman to break the sound barrier.^[11]

She was also the first woman to land and take off from an aircraft carrier, the first woman to reach Mach 2, the first woman to pilot a bomber across the North Atlantic (in 1941), the first woman enshrined in the Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton, Ohio, the first pilot to make blind (instrument) landing, the ONLY woman to ever be President of the Federation Aeronautique lnt'l (1958-1961), the first woman to fly a fixed-wing, jet aircraft across the Atlantic, the first pilot to fly above 20,000 feet with an oxygen mask and the first woman to enter the Bendix Trans-continental Race. She still holds more distance and speed records than any pilot living or dead, male or female.

In 1948, Cochran joined the US Air Force Reserve where she eventually rose to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.

In the 1960s, she was a sponsor of the Woman in Space Program^[12] program, an early program to test the ability of women to be astronauts. A number of the women passed or exceeded the results of the male astronauts^[13]^[14] before NASA canceled the program. Congress held hearings on the matter, during which John Glenn and Scott Carpenter testified against admitting women to the astronaut program.

Her Political Activites

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Jackie Cochran and Chuck Yeager being presented with the Harmon International Trophies by President Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Politically ambitious, she ran for Congress in her California home district as the candidate for the Republican Party. Although she defeated a field of five male opponents to win the Republican nomination, in the general election she lost to the Democratic candidate and first Asian-American Congressman, Dalip Singh Saund. Her political setback was one of the few failures she ever experienced and she never attempted another run. Those who knew Jacqueline Cochran have said that the loss bothered her for the rest of her life. However, as a result of her involvement in politics and the military, she would become close friends with General Dwight Eisenhower. In the early part of 1952, she and her husband helped sponsor a large rally at Madison Square Garden in New York City in support of an Eisenhower presidential candidacy.^[15]^[16] The rally was documented on film and Cochran personally flew it to France for a special showing at Eisenhower's headquarters. Her efforts proved a major factor in convincing Eisenhower to run for President of the United States in 1952 and she would play a major role in his successful campaign. Close friends thereafter, Eisenhower frequently visited her and her husband at their California ranch and after leaving office, wrote portions of his memoirs there.^[17]

Her Legacy

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Jackie Cochran standing on the wing of her F-86 while talking to Chuck Yeager and Canadair's chief test pilot Bill Longhurst.

Jacqueline Cochran died on 9 August 1980 at her home in Indio, California that she shared with Floyd Odlum. She was a long-time resident of the Coachella Valley, and is buried in Coachella Valley Cemetery. She regularly utilized Thermal Airport over the course of her long aviation career. The airport, which had been renamed Desert Resorts Regional, was again renamed "Jacqueline Cochran Regional Airport" in her honor. It also hosts an annual air show named for her^[18].

Her aviation accomplishments never gained the continuing media attention given those of Amelia Earhart, but that can in part be attributed to the public's fascination with those who die young at the peak of their careers. Also, Cochran's use of her husband's immense wealth reduced the rags-to-riches nature of her story. Nonetheless, she deserves a place in the ranks of famous women in history as one of the greatest aviators ever, and a woman who frequently used her influence to advance the cause of women in aviation.

Despite her lack of education, Ms. Cochran had a quick mind and an affinity for business and her investment in the cosmetics field proved a lucrative one. Later, in 1951, the Boston Chamber of Commerce voted her one of the twenty-five outstanding businesswomen in America. In 1953 and 1954, the Associated Press named her "Woman of the Year in Business."

Blessed by fame and wealth, she donated a great deal of time and money to charitable works, especially with those from impoverished backgrounds like her own.

Awards

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Jacqueline Cochran in the cockpit of a P-40.

From many countries around the world, she received citations and awards. In 1949, the government of France recognized her contribution to the war and aviation, awarding her the Legion of Honor and again in 1951 with the French Air Medal. She is the only woman to ever receive the Gold Medal from the Federation Aeronautique Internationale. She would go on to be elected to that body's board of directors and director of Northwest Airlines in the U.S. At home, the Air Force awarded her the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Legion of Merit^[19].

Other honors include:

In 1965, Jacqueline Cochran was invested in the International Aerospace Hall of Fame.
In 1971, she was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame.
In 1985, the International Astronomical Union assigned the name Cochran to a large (100 km in diameter) crater on planet Venus.
She became the first woman to be honored with a permanent display of her achievements at the United States Air Force Academy.
In 1996, the United States Post Office honored her with a 50¢ postage stamp, depicting her in front of a Bendix Trophy pylon with her P-35 in the background and the words: "Jacqueline Cochran Pioneer Pilot."
She was inducted in the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1993.
She is one of the 2006 inductees into the Lancaster, California Aerospace Walk of Honor, and the first woman to be inducted.
There is an open public airport named after her near Palm Springs, California called Jacqueline Cochran Regional Airport as well as an annual air show called the Jacqueline Cochran Air Show.

References

Notes

Nolen 2002, p. 32,34.

Howard Johns: Hollywood Celebrity Playground, Barricade Books, Fort Lee, NJ (2006). ISBN-13: 9781569803035 ISBN 156980303X

Howard Johns: Hollywood Celebrity Playground, Barricade Books, Fort Lee, NJ (2006). ISBN-13: 9781569803035 ISBN 156980303X

Photo in the Eisnhower archives

Photo in the Eisenhower archives

[phttp://www.centennialofflight.gov/essay/Explorers_Record_Setters_and_Daredevils/EX_OV.htm Centennial of Flight]

PDF document in the Eisenhower archives

PDF document in the Eisenhower archives

PDF document in the Eisenhower archives

Photo in the Eisenhower archives

Photo in the Eisenhower archives

Nasa archives, Woman in Space

The Women of the Mercury Era

Military Women Astronauts Note: Carpenter remarked that "a woman would exceed our weight allowance for recreational equipment."

PDF document in the Eisenhower archives

PDF in the Eisenhower archives

PDF document in the Eisenhower archives

Howard Johns: Hollywood Celebrity Playground, Barricade Books, Fort Lee, NJ (2006). ISBN-13: 9781569803035 ISBN 156980303X

Howard Johns: Hollywood Celebrity Playground, Barricade Books, Fort Lee, NJ (2006). ISBN-13: 9781569803035 ISBN 156980303X

Bibliography

Ayers, Billy Jean Pittman and Dees, Beth. Superwoman Jacqueline Cochran: Family Memories about the Famous Pilot, Patriot, Wife and Businesswoman. Self-published: Authorhouse, 2001. ISBN 0-75966-763-2.

Carl, Ann Baumgartner. A WASP Among Eagles. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institute, 2000. ISBN 1-56098-870-3.

Cochran, Jacqueline. The Stars at Noon. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1954, re-issued in 1979.

Cochran, Jacqueline and Brinley, Maryann Bucknum. Jackie Cochran: The Autobiography of the Greatest Woman Pilot in Aviation History. New York: Bantam Books, 1987. ISBN 0-553-05211-X.

McGuire, Nina and Sammons, Sandra Wallus. Jacqueline Cochran: America's Fearless Aviator. Lake Buena Vista, Florida: Tailored Tours Publishing, 1997. ISBN 0-96312-416-1.

Merryman, Molly. Clipped wings : The Rise and Fall of the Women Air Force Service Pilots (WASPs) of World War II. New York: New York University Press, 1998. ISBN 0-81475-567-4.

Nolen, Stephanie. Promised The Moon: The Uuntold Story of the First Women in the Space Race. Toronto, Canada: Penguin Canada, 2002. ISBN 1-56858-275-7.

Reminiscences of Jacqueline Cochran. Columbia University Aviation Project. New York: Columbia University Oral History Research Office, 1961.

Williams, Vera S. WASPs: Women Air Force Service Pilots of World War II. St. Paul, Minnesota: Motorbooks International, 1994. ISBN 0-87938-856-0.

References

Notes

Bibliography

Wikipedia