On July 26, 1937, 27-year-old aviatrix Jacqueline Cochrane claimed a non-stop speed record for female pilots flying between Los Angeles and Oakland, averaging 203.89 miles per hour over her 3 hour flight.
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Three months after learning to fly at the Wright Flying School, Harry Nelson Atwood completed the final leg of his journey from Boston to Washington, D.C. by landing his Wright Model B airplane on White House South Lawn. He traveled 576 miles over 14 days. President William Howard Taft was watching from the south portico and later presented Atwood with a gold medal from the Aero Club of Washington.
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The U.S. government issued a patent to Dr. Robert H. Goddard for a multistage rocket design. Seven days later, Goddard received another patent for a liquid-fueled rocket design. These designs laid the foundation for future space flights.
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On June 15, 1921, Bessie Coleman received the first pilot’s license issued to an African American woman and to a Native American woman. The license was issued by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI), the aviation licensing body of Europe.
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The “flying debutante” Ruth Nichols set off in her attempt to become the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic. Nichols flew an Akita from Brooklyn to Nova Scotia, where she made a crash landing after misjudging the length of the runway.
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After two unsuccessful attempts the year before, Fred and Algene Key took off in a Curtiss Robin J-1 Deluxe from Meridian, Mississippi on June 4 and did not touch the ground again until July 1, for a total time in the air of 653 hours and 34 minutes, or 27 days, a new world record.
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16 April 1912: American aviatrix Harriet Quimby flew across the English Channel in a Blériot XI monoplane. She departed Dover at 5:30 a.m. and crossed a fog-shrouded channel to land at Hardelot-Plage, Pas-de-Calais, 1 hour, 9 minutes later. Her only instruments were a hand-held compass and a watch.
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