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 2.5m (8ft 2in) 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.
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.[18]
August 29: Hilda Hewlett becomes the first English woman to earn a pilot's license (certificate No.122)[18] 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.[18]
October 6: Beatrix de Rijk is the first Dutch and the world's tenth woman to earn a pilot's license.[18]
October 10: Božena Laglerová is the first Czech woman to earn her pilot's license (Austrian Aero Club, license number 37).[18]
August 15: Lilly Steinschneider becomes the first Hungarian woman to earn a pilot's license.[18]
Jeanne Pallier earned her Brevet de pilote d'aéroplane, No. 1012, on 6 September 1912, at the age of forty eight, making her the oldest female aviator at the time.[21]
Hilda Hewlett is the first woman to co-found an aircraft factory
Rayna Kasabova becomes the first woman to participate in a military flight
1913
German, Käthe Paulus, inventor of the modern parachute
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.[34]
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.[50]
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.[54][55]
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.[56]
July: Graciela Cooper Godoy obtains the first license for a woman pilot in Chile.[57]
September: Maryse Bastié of France breaks the sustained flight endurance record for women, remaining aloft for 38 hours.[58]
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.[59]
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.[61][62][63]
British-trained Ruthy Tu becomes the first Chinese woman to earn a pilot's license[18][64] and first woman to join the Chinese Army as a pilot.[65]
December 31: Helen Richey becomes the first woman to pilot a commercial airliner in the United States.[77] She later resigned because she was not allowed into the all-male pilot's union and rarely allowed to fly.[78]
Sarla Thakral becomes the first Indian woman to earn her private pilot's license.[18]
Beryl Markham from England is the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean from east to west.[1]
Lee Ya-Ching becomes the first woman to be licensed as a pilot in China.[79]
Phyllis Doreen Hooper earns the first women commercial pilot license in South Africa.[80]
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.[85]
Inés Thomann becomes the first Peruvian woman pilot, when she is licensed at the Escuela de Aviación de "Las Palmas".[30]
May 15: Soviet A. Kondratyeva sets a record flight of 22 hours and 40 minutes from Moscow to Lukino Polie in a balloon.[59]
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.[89][90][91]
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).[94]
Mirta Vanni becomes the first woman commercial pilot in Uruguay.[95]
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.[100]
1943
Janet Bragg becomes the first African American woman to earn a commercial pilot's license.[101]
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.[120]
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.[124][125][126]
Molly Reilly is the first Canadian woman to become a civilian pilot.[131]
Based on the success of the Australian Women's Pilots' Association, Rhona Fraser and Ena Monk create the New Zealand Association of Women in Aviation (NZAWA).[132]
April 17: Eight stewardesses from the flight attendant union speak out against the policy of retiring stewardesses at age 32 during a press conference.[121]
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".[121]
1967
The India's Women Pilot Association (IWPA) is formed with charter members, Chanda Sawant Budhabhatti, Mohini Shroff, Rabia Fatehally, Sunila Bhajekar and Durba Banerjee.[140]
Kucki Low, Namibian pilot, is hired as the first woman commercial airline pilot in South Africa, flying for Namaqualand Airways.[150]
Bonnie Tiburzi is the first female pilot for American Airlines and the first female pilot for a major American commercial airline,[151] as well as the first woman in the world to earn a Flight Engineer rating on a turbo-jet aircraft.[152]
September 2: Ten women graduate from UPT Class 77-08, earning their silver wings for the United States Air Force. The women who start and graduate are Connie Engel, Kathy LaSauce, Mary Donahue, Susan Rogers, Christine Schott, Sandra Scott, Victoria Crawford, Mary Livingston, Carol Scherer and Kathleen Rambo.[158]
September 16: The female crew set five world records on IL-62 airliner (CCCP-86453), including the world record of flight range without landing (11,074km or 6,881mi).[159]
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.[163]
The International Social Affiliation of Women Airline Pilots (later named the International Society of Women Airline Pilots or ISA) is formed as a social and professional organization.[164]
The Professional Women Controllers, Inc, is founded by Sue Townsend and Jacque Smith in Delaware. The organization advocates for diversity in air traffic control.[165]
June: Mary Crawford becomes the first women's flight officer in the United States Navy.[47]
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.[172][173]
Chinyere Kalu (née Onyenucheya) becomes Nigeria's first female commercial pilot.[174]
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."[191]
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.[196]
US Air Force Captain and Instructor Pilot Eileen Isola becomes the first woman to serve as an Advance Agent to the President of the United States serving both Presidents Bush (41) and Clinton.[197]
Felistas Matengo-Mkandawire becomes the first black woman pilot in Malawi, flying as first officer for Air Malawi.[217]
The Federation of European Women Pilots (FEWP) is founded in Rome.[218]
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.[219][circular reference]
Sarah Deal becomes the United States Marine Corps' first female aviator.[220]
1996
Maria Ziadie-Haddad becomes the first female airline captain in Jamaica.[221]
Chipo Matimba becomes the first woman to complete the Air Force of Zimbabwe's pilot training course.[222]
Hildegarde Ferrea, at age 99, becomes the oldest person to perform a skydive jump.[223]
1997
March: The Association for Women in Aviation Maintenance (AWAM) is formed.[224]
Jennifer Murray is the first woman to go around the world in a helicopter.[93]
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.[249][250]
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.[266]
2009
February 12: The first all-African American, female flight crew flies from Nashville to Atlanta round-trip.[267]
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.[268]
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.[270]
Ângela Pedro Francisco becomes the first woman pilot of Mozambique.[271]
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.[285]
The Afghan Air Force starts training women pilots again. Sourya Saleh and Masooma Hussaini are trained as helicopter pilots.[286]Niloofar Rahmani is trained as a fixed-wing military pilot, the first Afghan woman in the military to fly planes.[287]
May: Kavistha Maharaj becomes the first black, and first Indian South African woman to captain for South African Airways.[293][294]
July: The first women paratroopers in Pakistan complete their training with Captain Kiran Ashraf the best of the 24 graduates.[295]
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.[223]
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.[316]
2024
Cathy Babis becomes the first woman to circumnavigate Australia in a seaplane.[317]
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