ANNCR:
Now, the VOA Special English program, EXPLORATIONS.
Today, Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant tell the story of Americanpilot Jacqueline Cochran.
VOICE ONE:
Some people’s paths in life seem to be straight and true. From anearly age, they are set on one goal. Other people’s paths turn thisway and that. The events of their lives are a surprise.
Jacqueline Cochran was one of these people. No event in her earlylife was a sign of what she was to become — one of the best fliersin the world.
Jacqueline Cochran was known as Jackie. She said she was born inNineteen-Ten. She did not really know. Her parents died when she wasa baby. Another man and woman adopted her. They became her legalparents.
These people were very poor. They lived in several towns inFlorida and Georgia. Jackie went to school for just two years. Thenshe began work in a cotton factory. She was eight years old. Sheearned six cents an hour.
VOICE TWO:
Later, Jackie studied to be a nurse. But, she decided to be abeautician, a person who cuts and fixes other people’s hair. Shewent to a special school and worked in several beauty shops in theSouth. Then, she decided to move to New York City. There she workedin a very fine beauty shop. On a business trip, she met wealthyfinancial expert, Floyd Odlum.
Floyd Odlum urged Jackie to learn to fly. He also helped herestablish what was to become a very successful business.
Jackie had dreamed of selling her own beauty products. At thattime, the United States was in severe economic trouble, the GreatDepression. Floyd told Jackie it would be very difficult to sellenough beauty products to make her company successful. She wouldhave to sell them all across America.
To cover the territory, he said, she would need wings. Shethought it was a great idea.
VOICE ONE:
Years later, Jackie Cochran remembered how she talked with herfriends about learning to fly. They all warned her how difficult itwould be. She did not think so. So she went to Roosevelt Field onNew York’s Long Island to learn how.
After two-and-a-half weeks of lessons, she received her officialpilot’s license. She immediately flew to Montreal, Canada. The yearwas Nineteen-Thirty-Two.
Three years later, she competed in the Bendix Trophy Race fromLos Angeles to Cleveland.
The race was an important competition for both men and womenpilots. In her first try, Cochran had trouble with her plane. Shefailed to finish. Another young female pilot, Amelia Earhart,finished fifth.
VOICE TWO:
In Nineteen-Thirty-Six, Jackie and Floyd were married. Shecontinued to operate her company, Jacqueline Cochran Cosmetics. Andhe continued to support her flying activities.
In Nineteen-Thirty-Seven, Amelia Earhart attempted to fly aroundthe world. She disappeared during that flight. A group of femalepilots held a memorial ceremony to honor her. Jackie Cochran spokeat the ceremony. “We can mourn her loss,” Cochran said, “but notregret her effort. We will carry on her goals.”
VOICE ONE:
A month after Earhart was declared lost at sea, Cochran flewagain in the Bendix Trophy Race. She was the only female pilot. Shefinished in third place, ahead of several of America’s toughest malepilots.
The winner of that race flew a new kind of military plane. It wasdesigned by Alexander de Seversky. He had come to the United Statesfrom Russia.
Seversky wanted to sell his new long-distance plane to the UnitedStates Army Air Corps. He thought the army would notice his plane ifa female pilot flew it in a race and did well. So he asked Cochranto fly it in the next Bendix race. She accepted immediately.
VOICE TWO:
Seversky added extra fuel containers in the wings. He wanted toshow that the plane could fly long distances without stopping.Cochran would be the first pilot to use the new system.
Twenty-one pilots flew a test course before the race. Only tencompleted it successfully. Nine men and Jackie Cochran.
The race began in Burbank, California, in the middle of thenight. Forty-thousand persons were there to watch. Seversky’s plane,with Cochran at the controls, speeded down the runway. Its silverwings and body shone in the lights around the airfield. The planelifted off the runway, climbed up and disappeared into the darkness.
VOICE ONE:
Another crowd was waiting in Cleveland, Ohio. They cheered as thefirst plane landed and crossed the finish line. It was the silverplane flown by Jackie Cochran. She had won the race.
Cochran had flown three-thousand two-hundred-seventy kilometersin eight hours and ten minutes. She had done it without stopping.But only she knew there was enough fuel left to fly just a few moreminutes.
Jackie Cochran won something else that year — recognition. Shereceived the Harmon Trophy, the highest award given to a pilot inAmerica. She would win the Harmon Trophy thirteen more times.
VOICE TWO:
The next year, Nineteen-Thirty-Nine, World War Two started inEurope. Cochran believed female pilots could help in the war effort.She thought they should be permitted to fly military transportplanes. In that way, she said, more male pilots would be free to flycombat planes.
In Nineteen-Forty, she tried to get the United States Army AirForces to support her idea. Cochran wrote to President FranklinRoosevelt’s wife, Eleanor. She said the real problem in wartime waslikely to be a lack of trained pilots. Many women, she noted,already were trained.
VOICE ONE:
Cochran received permission to go to England to observe femalepilots in the newly-formed British Air Transport Auxiliary. Shestayed there several years.
By Nineteen-Forty-Three, the United States realized that it didneed more pilots. The commander of America’s Army Air Forces,General Henry Arnold, visited England. He asked Cochran to come homeand organize a program for female pilots. The group would be knownas the Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASPs.
The group existed for two years. During that brief time, thewomen learned to fly seventy-seven kinds of military planes.
One-thousand seventy-four women served as WASPs. They flew almostone-hundred-million kilometers. They were never officially part ofthe Army Air Forces. They were considered civilian employees.
VOICE TWO:
At the end of World War Two, the American government gave JackieCochran the Distinguished Service Medal for organizing the WASPs.She was the first civilian to receive the honor.
After the war, she worked with General Arnold. She helped write abill that created America’s Air Force Reserve. She became the firstfemale member. She was finally a member of the military.
VOICE ONE:
In the late Nineteen-Forties, Cochran started racing again. Sheset many more flying records. In Nineteen-Fifty-Four, she enteredthe jet age. The Canadian government agreed to let her test its newfighter plane. In it, she became the first woman to fly faster thanthe speed of sound.
In the early Nineteen-Sixties, she became a test pilot for theLockheed Company. She flew a fighter plane two-thousandtwo-hundred-eighty-six kilometers an hour. More than two times thespeed of sound.
It was the fastest speed ever reached by a female pilot.
VOICE TWO:
Jackie Cochran sold her beauty products company inNineteen-Sixty-Four. She died of a heart attack in Nineteen-Eighty.At the time of her death, she held more speed, distance and altituderecords than any other pilot — man or woman — in aviation history.
She had risen from a lowly beginning to the heights of businessand flight.
Jackie Cochran is not as well-known as some of the other greatpilots. One history expert said people respected her, but did notreally like her. She led the way for other female pilots. But shedid not seek their company as friends.
Jackie Cochran felt very much at home in the sky. She oncedescribed her feelings about flying. This is what she said:
“Earth-bound souls know only that underside of the atmosphere inwhich they live. But go up higher, and the sky turns dark. High upenough, and one can see the stars at noon. I have. I have traveledwith the wind and the stars.”
(THEME)
ANNOUNCER:
This Special English program was written by Marilyn RiceChristiano. Your narrators were Harry Monroe and Kay Gallant. Thisis Shirley Griffith. Listen again next week for another EXPLORATIONSprogram on VOA.