Get to know Jerrie Cobb

Susan Flory

And Friends of Jerrie Cobb and the Jerrie Cobb Foundation

Wow, what a female! An aviation astronaut candidate and pilot.
At age 19, Cobb was teaching men to fly. At 21, she was delivering military fighters and four-engine bombers to foreign Air Forces worldwide.

 

Named as one of the nine women of the 100 most important young people in the United States in Life Magazine. And awarded the Amelia Earhart Gold Medal of Achievement. And her fellow airmen named her Pilot of the Year.

 

She set a new world record for speed, distance, and absolute altitude in her twenties. And she became the first woman to fly in the Paris Air Show, the world's largest air exposition. Then became a pilot and manager for Aero Design and Engineering Company. She set 3 world aviation records.
1. 1959 world record for nonstop long-distance flight, 2. 1959 world light-plane speed record.
3. 1960 world altitude record for lightweight aircraft of 37,010 ft.

Jerrie Cobb Facts

And in 1981 she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her humanitarian work!

Also she received numerous aviation honors, including the Harmon Trophy and the Fédération Aéronautique International's Gold Wings Award.

NASA Administrator James Webb appointed Cobb as a consultant to the NASA space program.

Jerrie Cobb of Oklahoma, the first woman to undergo tests for space travel.

 

Female American aviator Jerrie Cobb as the first female to pass all three phases of the Mercury Astronaut Program had been deprived of a space flights. She never reached her ultimate goal of space flight. NASA rules stipulated that only military test pilots could become astronauts and there were no female military test pilots.

 

She did however pave the way for women after her who did!

 

Image Thanks To: Wikipedia

Jerrie Cobb Solo Pilot

Jerrie Cobb later began flying much needed supplies and medicines to isolated South American inhabitants. She did 38 years of missionary work in South America in the headwaters of the Amazon Jungle. Jerrie dedicated this part of her lif to humanitarian flying. She transported supplies to indigenous tribes.
She pioneered new air routes across the hazardous territories using self-drawn maps. The new routes she discovered helped better the lives of countless individuals. Cobb has been honored by the Brazilian, Colombian, Ecuadorian, French, and Peruvian governments. In 1981 she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her humanitarian work.

 

 

Jerrie Cobb Achievements

By Friends of Jerrie Cobb and the Jerrie Cobb Foundation Site.

Awarded Amelia Earhart Gold Medal of Achievement

Named Woman of the Year in Aviation

Receives Amelia Earhart Memorial Award

Named Pilot of the Year by the National Pilots Association

Fourth American to be awarded Gold Wings of the Federations Aeronautique

International, Paris, France

Named Captain of Achievement by the International Academy of Achievement

One of nine women selected by Life Magazine as the "100 most important young people in the United States.

Serves five years as consultant to Federal Aviation Administration

Selected by the Mercury Astronaut Selection Team to be the first, and only, woman to undergo and successfully pass all three phases of Mercury astronaut tests (1960)

Appointed consultant to NASA by James Webb, Administrator

Testifies in Congressional hearings on women as astronauts

Awarded Captain rank, Pilot Wings as the first civilian ever given honorary rank in the Colombian Air Force

Receives Lady hay Drummond - Jessie R. Chamberlin trophy for "humanitarian flying in Amazonas helping the primitive tribes"

Honored by the government of Ecuador for "pioneering new air routes over the

Andes mountains and Amazon jungle"

Honored by government of Ecuador for "pioneering new air routes over the Andes Mountains and Amazon jungle"

Awarded the Harmon International Trophy for "the world's best woman pilot" by President Nixon at White House ceremony

Receives the Bishop Wright Air Industry Award for her "humanitarian contributions to modern aviation"

Inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame as "the most outstanding aviatrix in the United States"

Receives Pioneer Woman Award for her "courageous frontier spirit flying over the Amazon jungle serving primitive Indian tribes"

Inducted into the Oklahoma Aviation and Space Hall of Fame

Honored by the Amazonas Comisaria for "life saving jungle flights"

Nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize

Jerrie Cobb Story

Jerrie fell in love with flying at the age of 12 when she left mother earth for the first time in the back seat of a 1936 Waco bi-wing airplane. By the age of 16, she passed the tests for her pilot's license. There was no looking back.

 

In those days it was almost impossible for a woman pilot to get a job in her chosen career. Determined, she followed her love and her dream. She worked ground jobs in airports just to be close to the sky, she crop-dusted...anything to be where her heart would take her. She went on to earn her Multi-Engine, Instrument, Flight Instructor, Ground Instructor Ratings and her Airline Transport License.

 

Her love for flying would eventually encompass the globe. At the age of 21, Jerrie met Jack Ford, World War Two hero and legendary pilot. Jack needed someone to help ferry military fighters and four-engine bombers to foreign Air Forces around the world. A shy, young woman from Oklahoma, Jerrie talked her way into his good graces. The job was hers. Little did either of them know how instrumental they would be in each other's lives, not only professionally but also personally. Jerrie and Jack fell deeply in love. Their love for each other and for flight would span the world. Professionally, Jerrie proceeded to set world records in aviation for speed, distance and absolute altitude. She was the first woman to fly in the Salon Aeronautique International in Paris, France. She has been honored with countless awards for flight. In 1959, shortly after NASA selected and trained the Mercury 7 astronauts, Dr. W. Randolph Lovelace II, chairman of the Special Committee for Life Sciences for Project Mercury, the U. S. astronaut program, contacted Jerrie to see if she would be interested in testing for the astronaut program. Jerrie could not say yes fast enough. Jerrie successfully completed all phases of the testing, including a two-week series of tests at the U.S. Navy School of Aviation Medicine in Pensacola, Florida. She was 29 years old.

 

Amazed at how well Jerrie did in testing, Dr. Lovelace asked Jerrie for the names of 25 other female aviators who he contacted for possible further testing. Of those, 12 successfully completed the first phase of testing. Before all phases could be completed, the program was cancelled.

In May 1961, James E. Webb, NASA Administrator, appointed Jerrie to the position of NASA consultant. Hoping to one day be in a space capsule, Jerrie gladly continued her work. In 1963, congressional hearings were held to discuss the viability of women in space. The first day of hearings was very positive. Day two proved to be disastrous. Scott Carpenter and John Glenn were called to testify. Neither was supportive. Colonel Glenn testified: "I think this gets back to the way our social order is organized, really. It is just a fact. The men go off and fight the wars and fly the airplanes and come back and help design and build and test them. The fact that women are not in this field is a fact of our social order. It may be undesirable."

 

Congressional Hearings

 

The third day of hearings was canceled. A few months later, the Russians sent the first female into space; a factory worker named Valentina Tereshkova. Twenty years later, in 1983, the first American woman rode into space, Sally Ride, a physicist. Thirty-two years later, 1995, USAF Colonel Eileen Collins became the first American woman pilot to fly in space. Thirty-five years later, 1998, USAF Colonel Eileen Collins was commissioned the first female shuttle commander. Her first mission as Commander is scheduled for July, 1999.

 

Having lost her true love, Jack Ford, in a tragic accident and now losing her dream of space flight, Jerrie chose to selflessly give her life to God and fellow man. For 35 years, Jerrie flew missions serving the indigenous people of the Amazon Jungle. She has discovered tribes of Indians never before known to man. She has given her life to preservation of the basic form of humanity and nature.

 

Jerrie has never solicited funds, but has graciously accepted contributions by those who have heard of her missions. Her personal income and life have been given to the love and preservation of humanity. She has lived her life on a shoestring, away from the limelight many would have sought after reaching such high personal achievements. In recognition of her work in the Amazon Jungle, Jerrie was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

 

With the announcement of the upcoming shuttle flight of John Glenn, a grass roots campaign began to promote a shuttle flight for Jerrie. As John Glenn's mission is for medical research for senior citizens, there is an enormous need for medical research for senior women. Almost 80% of people in nursing homes are women. There is no one more qualified for this research than Jerrie Cobb. When Jerrie returned from the Amazon in April 1998 to the news that the campaign was in full swing, she could not contain her excitement. The past several months have been a completely different life for Jerrie, one that she is not comfortable with - being in the limelight. But it is certainly one that she happily accepts, if only to fulfill her 39-year dream of space flight.

 

Jerrie supported many national female organizations, several congressmen and congresswomen, school children from California to Massachusetts, men and women alike.

Jerrie was honored at the grand reopening of the Pioneer Woman Museum in her hometown of Ponca City, OK. In front of a crowd of approximately 2,000 people, Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) welcomed Jerrie with these words from Dan Goldin, NASA Administrator:
"If everything goes well and the data comes in after the John Glenn senior citizen space flight and the data works out, we will be doing it again. It is logical that a woman would be next and there is no one in America that is more qualified and deserving to be in that space shuttle than Jerrie Cobb."

 

 

***** Sponsored *****