10/07/2026
NAHF Enshrinee Jacqueline “Jackie” Cochran was a fiery trailblazer who first came into the world of flying from a surprising source: cosmetics. In the early 1930s, she learned how to fly, and by the mid-1930s, she established her own cosmetics company; Cochran would fly around the country looking for distributors and delivering products.
It was in the mid-1930s that she also caught the speed bug, and she began making her mark in the world of air racing. She quickly began setting records. From the 1930s to the 1960s, she set numerous speed, distance, and altitude records and won a variety of prestigious aviation awards including the 1938 Bendix Trophy and multiple Harmon Trophies. In 1953, Cochran became the first woman to break the sound barrier in a Canadair F-86 Sabre jet; she was coached by the first man to break the sound barrier: her fellow NAHF Enshrinee General Charles “Chuck” Yeager. In 1964, at the ripe age of 58, Cochran set to the skies once again for her final records; she set three speed records and flew Mach 2 (twice the speed of sound) in a USAF Lockheed F-105G Starfighter.
When WWII arrived, Cochran immediately began advocating for women aviators to have a role in the defense of the nation, suggesting that they take on auxiliary roles to free up men for combat just as women were already doing in factories across the country. Initially denied by the US government, Cochran first turned to England. In 1942 she joined the British Air Transport Auxiliary, which used civilians to transport aircraft; she brought 25 hand-selected fellow female pilots with her. She was only in England for a brief time before she learned of a program gathering experienced female pilots to ferry aircraft, run by Cochran’s fellow NAHF Enshrinee Nancy Love. Cochran wasted no time in returning to the U.S. to confront fellow NAHF Enshrinee General Henry “Hap” Arnold who had promised her such a job should it arise. Soon, Cochran and Love were running two separate organizations. Cochran ran the Women’s Flying Training Detachment and Love ran the Women’s Auxiliary Ferry Squadron. In 1943, Arnold combined the two organizations into the WASP - Women Airforce Service Pilots under the direction of Cochran. By the end of the war, the 1,074 women in WASP flew over 60 million miles, delivering 12,650 aircraft; they flew every military aircraft that was in use at the time.
Jackie Cochran had a tough personality and was absolutely rigid in her beliefs, but that toughness undoubtedly allowed her to blaze trails where society believed women could not tread. By the time of her death in 1980, she held more speed, altitude, and distance records than any other pilot–male or female.
