American History: Jerrie Mock

Jerrie Mock first flew in an airplane when she was seven. She told her parents she would grow up to be a pilot. From Newark, Ohio, after graduation, she went on to study engineering at Ohio State University. She was the only woman in their program. She was also the only one to score 100% on the exams. When she met her husband, she dropped out of school to be a housewife. Both she and her husband shared a love of travel, aspired to be pilots and took turns acquiring their licenses. Three children later, Mock planned her trip around the world because she wanted to see the world and said that she was "bored." When they realized no woman had tried the feat since Amelia Earheart, the news spread. A headline of the Columbus Sunday Dispatch read "Bexley Housewife Plans World Flight. Hopes To Be the First Woman To Go Around the Globe by Air." On March 19, 1964, the fulltime housewife and mother of three departed Port Columbus to a crowd of hundreds, beginning the historic flight that would forever cement her place in history. It took about a month (returning on April 17th) but, in her single-engine Cessna 180, “Spirit of Columbus," (nicknamed "Charlie") Jerrie Mock became the first woman to fly solo around the world. She didn't set out to become famous but by the time she landed she was a household name. With this trip, and several future ones, she earned praise and set many records. However, with the development of space race only a few years later, the public's attention fell higher in the sky and Jerrie Mock was all but forgotten.
For an extremely nice article on Jerrie Mock, click here.

Jerry was the First Woman to...

• fly solo around the world
• fly around the world in a single-engine plane
• fly U.S. – Africa via North Atlantic
• fly the Pacific single-engine
• fly the Pacific West to East
• fly both the Atlantic and Pacific
• fly the Pacific both directions

Speed/Distance Records

• Speed around the world, Class C1-c
• Speed around the world, Feminine
• Speed over a closed course of 500  km, Class C1-b
• Speed over a recognized course
• Distance in a straight line, Feminine
• Distance in a closed course, Class C1-c
• Distance in a closed course, Feminine

Awards and Honors

• Federal Aviation Agency Gold Medal for Exceptional Service
• Ohio Governor’s Award
• Louis Bleriot Silver Medal(World-Wide award of Fédération Aéronautique Internationale)
• American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Distinguished Service Award
• Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce Award of the Year
• Experimental Aircraft Association Special Award
• Ohio Aviation Trades Association Sparky Award
• Amelia Earhart Memorial Award, 1964
• Aero Classic Aviation Progress Award, 1965
• National Aviation Trades Association Pilot-of-the-Year Award, 1964
• Glenn Hammond Curtiss Silver Medal, Pittsburgh OX-5 Club
• Milestones in Manned Flight Trophy, Trans World Airlines
• Wadsworth, Ohio, Aero Club Special Award
• Kansas 99’s Special Recognition Medallion
• Special Award of Bexley Civic Association
• Women’s Aero Association of Wichita Award
• Award of Appreciation, Licking County (Ohio) Historical Society
• Columbus Transportation Club Special Award
• Sports Woman of the Year, Columbus Citizen-Journal, 1969
• Citation of Wichita, Kansas, Chamber of Commerce
• September 14, 2013 was declared Jerrie Mock Day by an official proclamation by Jeff Hall, mayor of Newark, Ohio. On the occasion, a life-size bronze sculpture of Mock, sculpted by Renate Burgyan Fackler, was unveiled in the courtyard of The Works museum.

(list of awards and recognitions taken from the Jerrie Mock Wikipedia page)

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