Jackie Cochran rose to become one of history’s most accomplished female aviators.

As an aviation pioneer, her life was characterized by a series of “Firsts”: she was the first civilian awarded the U.S. Distinguished Service Medal; the first woman to break the sound barrier (1953); the first woman to break Mach 2 (1960); the first woman to pilot a bomber across the North Atlantic (1941); the first woman inducted into the Aviation Hall of Fame; the first pilot to make an instrument landing; the first woman President of the Federation Aeronautique lnt'l; and the first pilot to fly above 20,000 feet with an oxygen mask; the first woman to compete in the famous Bendix Trophy Transcontinental Race across the U.S. (1934)—and was the first woman to win it (1938).

Cochran was the wartime head of the Women Airforce Serv