Plane Facts: Women In Aviation

Other aviation accomplishments: women's altitude (12,869 feet, 15,700 feet) and distance (201 miles) records

Death: killed co-piloting a test flight, July 18, 1919

First woman to receive a pilot's license, U.S.: Harriet Quimby, August 1, 1911

Previous career: Journalist/writer

Quimby's license number: 37

Other historic accomplishment: First woman to fly across the English Channel, April 16, 1912

Length of flying career: 11 months---killed in plane crash July 1, 1912

First woman to fly solo across the Atlantic: Amelia Earhart

First female airline pilot: Helen Richey (Central Airlines, 1934)

Other aviation accomplishments: 10-day endurance record (with Frances Marsalis - 1933), international altitude record (1936), first female air mail pilot, first CAA-licensed woman flight instructor, commandant of the American wing of the British Air Transport Auxiliary (1942), WASP member (1943-44)

Time flown for endurance record: 237 hours, 42 minutes (estimated 23,700 miles)

Length of airline pilot career: 10 months---quit due to discrimination after she was barred from the pilot's union and only allowed to fly in fair weather

Richey's pre-war flight hours: more than 10,000

War service: 300+ hours flown in 27 types of aircraft

Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs): served in WWII ferrying aircraft, transporting military personnel, conducting test flights, towing targets to train gunners, etc.

Requirements before joining: 35 hours flight time

Number of applicants: more than 25,000

Number accepted into training: 1,830

Number of WASPs after training: 1,102

Estimated number of miles flown by WASPs: 60 million

Number of WASPs killed in training or on duty: 38

WASP military status until 1977: civilian---no military benefits or honors given

First woman to break the sound barrier: Jacqueline Cochran (1953)

Early career: Hairdressing

Pilot to hold the most international speed, distance and altitude records, male or female: Jacqueline Cochran

First woman enshrined in the Aviation Hall of Fame: Jacqueline Cochran (1971)

Estimated active FAA pilot certificates held by women, 1960: 9,966 (2.85%)

Estimated active FAA pilot certificates held by women, 1980: 52,902 (6.39%)

Estimated active FAA pilot certificates held by women, 2016: 39,187 (6.71%)

First woman in space (and only woman to make a solo spaceflight): Valentina Tereshkova (1963---Vostok 6)

Age at time of flight: 26 years old

First official U.S. armed forces female pilot (Navy): Barbara Allen Rainey (1974)

Number of female pilots in the U.S. Air Force: 713 (5.66%)

State with the largest number of active female pilots, 2016: California (4,571)

State with the fewest active female pilots, 2016: Rhode Island (76)

State with the largest number of active female ATPs, 2016: Florida (719)

Percentage of female dispatchers, 1960: 0.06%

Percentage of female dispatchers, 2016: 15.47%

Percentage of FAA-certified female mechanics, 1960: 0.09%

Percentage of FAA-certified female mechanics, 2016: 2.28%