The Liberty Gazette
July 18, 2023
Ely Air Lines
By Mike Ely and Linda Street-Ely
Linda: Born in 1906, Jackie Cochran’s life before she learned to fly was spent largely in salons, helping women get all dolled up. At a party she was given advice on traveling the country to sell her own cosmetics: You should get your pilot’s license so you can cover more territory.
Jackie left Saks Fifth Avenue Salon in New York City and built a cosmetics empire while blasting off into the world of aviation. Her accomplishments are too numerous to list in this space, but a few highlights include being the first woman to break the sound barrier (Chuck Yeager was a huge fan of hers), the first woman to take off and land on an aircraft carrier, and the first woman to make a blind landing. And she didn’t have anywhere near the sophisticated instruments we have today.
She flew stunts for a flying circus and somewhat stealthily flew airliners (allegedly the passengers didn’t know). She championed flying opportunities for women via Britain’s Air Transport Auxiliary, the U.S. Women Army Corps (eventually merged into WASP), and the Civil Air Patrol. She moved the game forward for women to become astronauts and even helped General Dwight D. Eisenhower win the presidential election.
The guy who had given her that great advice at the party was Floyd Bostwick Odlum, one of the 10 wealthiest people in America at the time. He knew how to succeed in business and helped to finance her start-up, Wings to Beauty, because he admired her so much. Eventually, they married.
Jackie was the only woman “allowed” to fly in the Bendix race in 1937 and won it the following year. In doing so, she opened the door for other women. Known as the Speed Queen, Jackie earned seven Harmon Trophies for aviation achievements. Then she joined the U.S. Air Force Reserves as a lieutenant colonel, and her mojo didn’t stop. She was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross with two oak leaf clusters as well as a long list of other medals from the U.S., UK, and France for her contributions to our side during WWII. After 22 years, she retired as a colonel and went on to advise Northrop as a test pilot for their T38 Talon supersonic jet trainer. Just in that one airplane alone, she set 73 speed, distance, and altitude records.
It is said that she still holds more records than any pilot living or dead, male or female. And to be clear, she said she never intended to set records designated as female. She wasn’t trying to be a man or copy men; she was just herself and loved to fly. In fact, most of her records are absolute. In other words, not as the first woman to set a particular record, but as the first person. Case in point: her 1,300 mph speed record in an F-104 on a 100-kilometer closed course. No one else will ever be first. The Experimental Aircraft Association called her “The Record Holder of all Record Holders.”
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