Was First Woman To Fly Solo Around The World

In 1964, Geraldine "Jerrie" Mock, an Ohio housewife, made aviation history when she became the first woman to fly solo around the world. Mock passed away at her home in Quincy, FL Tuesday at the age of 88. Her family said she had been in declining health for some time.

According to a report appearing on SFGate online, Mock flew her Cessna 180 "Spirit of Columbus" nearly 23,000 miles over 29 days, with the trip beginning and ending in Columbus, OH. Along the way, she made 21 stops in such places as Casablanca, Cairo, Calcutta, and the Azores.

The trip was not without its moments. She said in an April interview that she had problems with her radios, the brakes on the airplane, and the inevitable bad weather. She said that she had landed by mistake at an Egyptian military base, and at one point saw a wire burning in the airplane that was at the time carrying a large amount of extra fuel.

While the mother-of-three from Newark, OH was dubbed "The Flying Housewife", Mock had studied aeronautical engineering at Ohio State University and was an experienced pilot. She said in the interview "Airplanes are meant to fly. I was completely confident in my plane."

Mock went on to establish several aviation speed records. She was a guest of President Lyndon Johnson at the White House following her flight.

There is a life-sized statue of Mock holding a globe cast in bronze at Port Columbus Airport. She requested that she be cremated, with her ashes scattered from an airplane over the Gulf of Mexico.

(Jerrie Mock pictured in public domain image from 1964)

FMI: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerrie_Mock