Born in 1906 in Muskogee, Florida, Jacqueline Jackie Cochran was
America's greatest woman pilot: the first to break the sound
barrier, first to fly a bomber across the Atlantic, possessor of
more than 200 aviation records and the commander of the Women
Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) during World War II. Born in 1906 in
Muskogee, Florida, Cochran left school when she was eight to work
in a textile factory, became a beautician then a salon owner before
she was twenty, moved to New York four years later and earned her
pilot's license, becoming a flying saleswoman for her own cosmetics
company. Some 25 years later, Cochran reached Mach 2--twice the
speed of sound--in a Lockheed F-104, having already become a
colonel in the Air Force Reserve. Intelligent, brash, determined,
courageous, and ambitious, she counted presidents Eisenhower and
Johnson among her friends, as well as national leaders in business,
Congress, and military and commercial aviation. Drawing upon
previously unpublished information about Cochran's early years and
her first marriage, and on her extensive correspondence with U.S.
presidents, Air Force generals, aircraft designers, test pilots,
and business tycoons, Rich shows Cochran's many contrasts. Seen by
enemies as an egotistical master of self-promotion, she was
nevertheless capable of loyal and abiding friendships. And although
her personality was sometimes abrasive, she used it to accomplish
impressive results, including her work on behalf of an independent
Air Force. She actively opposed early feminists and, though she was
responsible for the groundbreaking formation of the WASP, she was
instrumental in delaying the acceptance of women as astronauts.
Rich bringsclarity, detail, and objectivity to a life story that
had until now remained vague, contrived from hearsay and
controversy. This first extensive critical biography puts Cochran's
great talents and achievements in the context of her turbulent
personal life to create a portrait of a remarkable, complicated
woman.
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