LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Jackie Cochran: Aircraft
built 215 days ago
Amelia's best friend, Jackie Cochran, was deeply disturbed by her plans for an "around-the-world" flight. In fact, Cochran attempted to dissuade her friend from the risky venture. When Amelia failed to reach Howland Island as planned, Jackie, a strong believer in psychic phenomenae, gave Amelia's husband, George Putnam, specific instructions on where to find her. Jackie's ESP indicated that Amelia's plane ran out of fuel north west of Howland Island, and that Amelia and navigator, Fred Noonan, were alive, but floating on the disabled aircraft and in need of immediate rescue. By day three, a disheartened Jackie reported that Amelia was no longer alive.
Jackie did not want to wait long once she got the bug to fly. She wanted to fly right now. Jackie never let up on anything once she set her mind to it. Jackie soloed and received her pilot’s license at Roosevelt Field which was a small airfield on Long Island. The first airplane Jackie flew was a fleet trainer. Once Jackie got her license she wanted her own aircraft and soon owned her first, a Travelair.
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As successive classes graduated in Texas, Cochran pushed for missions outside the Ferry Division, and in the stress of 1943 and 1944, the Army was willing to oblige. Women began hauling cargo and personnel, testing repaired aircraft, and towing muslin sheets for antiaircraft target practice. In essence, the Army recognized that women were so eager to fly that they would take unpopular missions without complaint.
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Nancy was not as famous as Jackie was, but she was ... a very experienced and well-known female pilot. She started flying at age 16, practiced several flying jobs and later started an aircraft sales company in Boston. However, the Army was uninterested in Nancy’s proposal as well.
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Jackie then pursued different aspects of aviation careers. She got a job as a test pilot. She flew and tested the first turbo-supercharger ever installed on an aircraft engine in 1934. During the following two years, she became the first person to fly and test the forerunner to the Pratt & Whitney 1340 and 1535 engines.
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By 1939, Jackie was hatching a plan through which female pilots would "free a man to fight" by ferrying aircraft, towing targets or flying in other non-combat capacities. Never one to hide her vision under a bushel, Jackie took her germ of an idea directly to Eleanor Roosevelt.
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