Jacqueline Cochran (1910-80), American aviator and business executive, was born Bessie Mae Pittman in Pensacola, Florida.

By 1935 she had a pilot's license and her own cosmetics firm. Cochran holds many records. She was the first woman to fly in the Bendix Trophy Transcontinental Race (1934), to win it (1938), to pilot a bomber across the Atlantic Ocean (1941), to receive the Distinguished Service Medal (1945, as head of Women's Air Force Service Pilots of World War II), to break the sound barrier (1953), to take off from and land on an aircraft carrier (1960), to attain a flying speed of 1355 km/hr (842 mph) (1961), and to serve as president of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (she was elected in 1959). As a pilot, Cochran received more than 200 awards and trophies.

In 1997, the US Post office finally honored the greatest woman pilot who ever lived...with her own 50¢ stamp!