Daredevil American Heroes of Exploration and Flight by Anne Schraff

Author:Anne Schraff [Schraff, Anne E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-1-4645-1159-2
Publisher: Enslow Publishers, Inc.
Published: 2013-05-15T00:00:00+00:00

Image Credit: Photo courtesy Air Force Flight Test Center History Office

Aviation pioneer Jackie Cochran walks with friend and fellow test pilot Chuck Yeager, the first pilot to travel faster than sound in 1947.

At the end of World War II, Cochran traveled around the world, visiting Japan as a lieutenant colonel in the USAF reserve. In 1948—while in Dallas, Texas, on a business trip—she piloted a seriously ill, then senatorial candidate, Lyndon B. Johnson, to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Forever after President Johnson referred to Cochran as “the pretty gal that saved my life.”10

Cochran was now in her forties and eager for new adventures. She had been in the center of aviation, but now it seemed as though the jet phase was passing her by. Cochran used her influence to work with jet test pilot General Chuck Yeager in the Canadian-built F-86—the fastest plane in the world at that time. She spent many hours at Edwards Air Force Base, California, in jet trainers with Yeager. “She was a Sherman Tank at full steam,” Yeager said of Cochran. “She was as nuts about flying as I was.”11

In 1953, Cochran was proficient enough to fly at Mach 1—the speed of sound. She climbed to forty-five thousand feet, then started a full-power, almost vertical dive for the airport: “I was hanging face down diving at Mach 1 with my blood surging into my brain. I pulled out of that first dive through the sound barrier, exhilarated, exhausted.”12

Cochran saw the sky grow dark blue and the sun appear as a bright globe, while stars could be seen at noon. But she could not hear the sound of her own plane because she was outrunning sound. Cochran said that she was impressed with the immensity of space. Being so close to space and those noonday stars convinced her that there must be a divine order of things.13

In 1953, President Dwight Eisenhower presented Cochran with the Harmon Trophy for Outstanding Female Pilot of the Year. In 1961, Cochran set eight major speed records. Then in May 1964, she flew a Lockheed F-104 jet Starfighter to break the women’s international speed record at an average of 1,429.297 miles per hour. Throughout the 1960s, Cochran continued to set speed records.

In 1970, Cochran tried to fly a Lockheed helicopter, but the onset of heart trouble frustrated her plans. She began having seizures and blackouts. In 1971, doctors implanted a pacemaker and told her that she must stop flying. In response, she immediately bought a motor home in which to travel. In 1976, her husband, Floyd Odlum, died in Cochran’s arms. It had been a long and happy marriage. Four years later, in August 1980, Jacqueline Cochran died.

Cochran was buried with her rosary and the doll she won as a child. By coincidence, jets streaked overhead. An old friend, Father Charles M. Depiere, said, “I’d like to presume that there was some divine pilot guiding her heavenward.”14

Cochran’s achievements are impressive. She held more speed, distance, and altitude records than

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