Women pioneers in Aviation

Although women have flown since 1908, nearly all of them were
restricted to general aviation, i.e. private planes, or support job. However,
women have now gained full access to military and commercial cockpits,
as well as the Space Shuttle and aerospace technology.

Raymonde de Laroche
French pilot and the first
woman in the world to receive
an aeroplane pilot's lisence.

Hlne Dutrieu
On 19 April 1910 she
reputedly became the first
woman pilot to fly with a
passenger.

Harriet Quimby
Early American aviator and a movie screenwriter. In 1911, she was
awarded a U.S. pilot's certificate by the Aero Club of America, becoming the first
woman to gain a pilot's license in the United States. In 1912, she became the
first woman to fly across the English Channel

Amelia Earhart
An American aviation pioneer and author. Earhart was the first
female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She received the U.S.
Distinguished Flying Cross for this record.
During an attempt to make a circumnavigational flight of the globe in
1937 in a Purdue-funded Lockheed Model 10 Electra, Earhart disappeared over
the central Pacific Ocean near Howland Island. Fascination with her life, career
and disappearance continues to this day.

Eileen Collins
The first woman selected by NASA to
command a space shuttle mission in 1999.

Hanna Reitsch,
Recognized even today as the world's
first and foremost female test pilot. Her feats
are astounding - first woman to fly jet planes,
rocket planes and helicopters, the first pilot to
fly a glider over the Alps

Sheila Scott
Britain's first pilot to fly around the
world solo, doing so in a Piper Comanche 260.
After her round-the-world flight, Sheila went on
to other record-breaking dashes.
British aviator Sheila Scott became the
first pilot to make a solo flight across the North
Pole in 1971. On her mission, Scott tested the
Nimbus navigation and locator communication
systems that paved the way for the Global
Positioning System technology available today.

Princess Eugenie Shakhovskaya

Crashed a Wright biplane and
vowed never to fly again. She broke her
promise when she became the first
female
military
pilot,
flying
reconnaissance missions during World
War I.

Though women were initially

barred
from
combat,
Soviet
Premier Joseph Stalin issued an order on
October 8, 1941 to deploy three
women's air force units, including the
588th regiment. The regiment, formed
by Colonel Marina Raskova and was
made up entirely of women volunteers
in their late teens and early twenties.
An attack technique of the
night bombers was to idle the engine
near the target and glide to the bomb
release point, with only wind noise
left to reveal their location. German
soldiers likened the sound to
broomsticks and named the pilots
"Night Witches."

AIMEE CARANDANG
The first Filipino woman commercial pilot. She's also the 1st
Filipina pilot to fly as a full-fledged captain for the Philippine
Airlines in 1993. Besides she's regarded as Asia's first female pilot.
On July 6, 1993 PAL's first female pilot, Amada "Aimee" Carandang,
flew for the first time as a full-fledged captain on a Fokker 50 flight
from Manila to Baguio.

Ramona Palabrica Go
Philippines, a colonel in the AFP, is
the first woman military pilot in the
Philippines. Alone in the cockpit of the Army
Cessna 172 Skyhawk trainer plane No 862 for
her first solo flight, she was able to take off
and land the aircraft at Fort Magsaysay Army
Aerodrome in Nueva Ecija, becoming a fullfledged pilot on Nov. 3, 1986.

Capt. Catherine Marie Castillo holds

the current record of being the first Filipina Jet
Aircraft Pilot as well as the first Filipina airbus
instructor.