Abby Connolly
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.
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