She Was The First Woman In U.S. History To Fly Around The World All By Herself
For the Super Bowl this year, many viewers were excited to see the game’s pre-kickoff show. Seven female pilots took part in the U.S. Navy flyover in honor of 50 years since women were first allowed to become U.S. Navy pilots.
When reflecting on powerful female aviators in history, the first woman to ever fly around the world comes to mind.
Her name was Geraldine Mock, and she made this amazing milestone in 1964. Geraldine, otherwise known as Jerrie, was born in Newark, Ohio, in 1925. When she was a little girl, she had the opportunity to fly with her father in the cockpit of a Ford TriMotor plane.
She fell in love with the idea of being a pilot and set her mind on becoming one at a young age.
She was the only woman in her aeronautical engineering classes in high school and college at Ohio State University. She met her husband, Russell Mock, in college and married him in 1945.
Jerrie’s pilot career was temporarily placed on hold when she and Russell decided to start a family. They had three children together, two boys and a girl. However, she picked flying back up and got her pilot certificate in 1958.
She began planning for her flight around the world in 1962 after her husband suggested it at the dinner table one night.
Her intense trip received funding from sponsors that she and her husband rallied in preparation for the journey. Jerrie also received a loan from The Columbus Dispatch newspaper, which gave her a lot of press.
Jerrie took off for her trip around the world from Columbus, Ohio, on March 19th, 1964. Flying in a single-engine Cessna 180 named the “Spirit of Columbus,” it took her 29 days, 11 hours, and 59 minutes to complete her journey.
Rostislav Bouda/Wirestock Creators – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only
She traveled in tricky weather conditions and technical problems like brake failure, but everything went well. Even her radio broke, but she decided to look on the bright side and entertained herself by singing songs on the plane.
Jerrie got to stop in countries like Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, where she learned a lot and made quite an impression on the locals. Finally, she returned to Columbus on April 17th, 1964, making her the first woman in U.S. history to fly around the world solo.
After her historic trip, Jerrie only made one more big flight. She had been given a new plane, a Cessna P-206. When she knew she was ready to end her career as a pilot, she decided to fly the aircraft to Papua, New Guinea, where she would donate it to a charity organization.
On May 4th, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson presented Jerrie with the Federal Aviation Agency Gold Medal for Distinguished Service.
Although she retired from taking massive trips around the world, Jerrie’s love for flying never went away. She passed away at her home in Florida at the age of 88 in 2014.
As women in the aviation industry continue to make history, it’s important to remember some women who paved the way, like Jerrie most certainly did.
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