Jacqueline Cochran

JACQUELINE COCHRAN d1980. American pilot and business executive. She pioneered women's aviation as one of the most prominent racing pilots of her generation. She set numerous records and was the first woman to break the sound barrier on 18th May 1953. She (along with Nancy Love) was the wartime head of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) (1943–1944) which employed about 1000 civilian American women in a non-combat role to ferry planes from factories to port cities. She was later a sponsor of the Mercury 13 women astronaut program. She died in California aged 74 on August 9th 1980