 |
|
"Lady Racer"
by Rich Dann
Famed aviator and racing pilot, Jackie Cochran, is seen in her Seversky AP-7 which she flew to victory in in the 1938 Bendix air Race. 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.
Jacqueline Cochran was born near Muscogee, Florida on an undetermined date sometime between 1906 and 1910 and was orphaned by the age of four. She actually selected her name, Jacqueline Cochran, out of a phone book. As a teenager, she went to New York to work in the cosmetics industry and by the age of nineteen owned her own salon.
In 1932, she earned her pilot's license at Roosevelt Field, Long Island, in a Fleet Trainer. She entered her first long distance race, the MacRobertson London to Australia Race in 1934, flying the unforgiving Gee Bee Q.E.D. along with Wesley Smith and led the race briefly but was unable to finish due to faulty flaps. Cochran entered her first Bendix Trophy Race in 1935 flying a Northrop Gamma but did not finish due to engine problems. In 1936, she married millionaire Floyd Odlum and in 1937 once again entered the Bendix Trophy race in a Beech Staggerwing. She took first place in the Women's Division of the Bendix and third overall flying from Los Angeles, California, to Cleveland, Ohio, in 10 hours 19 minutes at an average speed of 194.74 mph.
In 1938, Jacqueline won the Bendix Trophy flying the Seversky AP-7 (a civilian modified version of the P-35 fighter) in an elapsed time of 8:10.31 at an average speed of 249.774 mph. Also in 1938, she was awarded the prestigious Harmon Trophy as Outstanding Female Pilot of 1937, setting three major course records: the Women's National Speed record (203.895 mph in a Beech Staggerwing), the Women's World Speed record (292.271 mph in a Seversky P-35), and the New York to Miami Speed Record (with an elapsed time of 4:12.27, also in a Seversky). She went on to establish a Women's National Altitude record in 1939 flying to 30,052.43 feet over Palm Springs, California, and an International Speed Record on a 1,000 kilometer course of 305.926 mph.
Jackie's accomplishments did not stop there. She was the commanding officer of the Women's Air Service Pilots (WASP) during World War II and retired as a Colonel from the Air Force Reserve. She was a Lockheed test pilot. She was the first woman to fly Mach 1. She was the first woman to fly Mach-2. Jackie died at her home in Indio, California in 1980.
Cochran's autobiography is a good read -- Stars at Noon published by Little, Brown & Co., 1967.
Seversky P-35
Seversky AP-7The Seversky P-35 was not originally designed as a racer, but when Alexander de Seversky could not interest the Army Air Corps in a long-range version of the P-35, he turned to air racing to prove its value. Seversky Aircraft built civilian versions that were flown by de Seversky himself, Frank Fuller, and Jackie Cochran. The P-35 later evolved into the P-47 Thunderbolt, one of the great US fighters of World War II.
2002 Wings Publishing
