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Sale 58
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Lot 90
(Cochran, Jacqueline) Trophy for 1937 U S Women’s Speed Record. Beautiful brass trophy topped by a replica of a prop plane (the propeller turns!), 16 in. high. With brass band engraved: "1937 U S WOMEN’S SPEED RECORD / Awarded To / JACQUELINE COCHRAN / 203.89 mph / By / Beech Aircraft." Made by Dodge Trophies. Chicago, IL. (the same company that made the Oscars until 1982). The brass dish measures 10½ in across and has a latticed cover, on which sits the prop plane. The brown plastic base is 7 in across at the bottom.
Jacqueline Cochran (1906 – 1980) was a pioneer American aviator, considered to be one of the most gifted racing pilots of her generation. At the time of her death, no pilot, man or woman, held more speed, distance or altitude records in aviation history. Cochran flew her first major race in 1934. The only woman to compete in the 1937 Bendix race, she worked with Amelia Earhart to open the race for women. That same year, she also set a new woman's national speed record and received the trophy offered here. By 1938, she was considered the best female pilot in the United States, having won the Bendix and set a new transcontinental speed record, as well as altitude records. By this time, she was no longer just breaking women's records but was setting overall records. During World War II, she was an important contributor to the formation of the wartime Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC) and Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP).
She was the first woman to break the sound barrier, the first woman to fly a jet across the ocean, and the first woman to fly a bomber across the Atlantic (1941). She won five Harmon Trophies as the outstanding woman pilot in the world. After World War II, she began flying jet aircraft and set numerous records. Encouraged by Major Chuck Yeager, in 1953 she became the first woman pilot to break the sound barrier, flying a Canadair F-86 Sabre jet (borrowed from the Royal Canadian Air Force) at an average speed of 652.337 mph.
She was also the first woman to land and take off from an aircraft carrier, the first woman to reach Mach 2, the first pilot to make a blind (instrument) landing, the only woman to ever be President of the Federation Aeronautique International (1958-1961), the first woman to fly a fixed-wing, jet aircraft across the Atlantic, the first pilot to fly above 20,000 feet with an oxygen mask and the first woman to enter the Bendix Trans-continental Race.
The U.S. Air Force awarded her the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Legion of Merit and honored her with a permanent display of her achievements at the United States Air Force Academy. The French government awarded her the Legion of Honor and the French Air Medal; she is the only woman to ever receive the Gold Medal from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. In 1965, Jacqueline Cochran was inducted into the International Aerospace Hall of Fame, and in 1971into the National Aviation Hall of Fame. In 1996, the United States Post Office honored her with a 50¢ postage stamp, depicting her in front of a Bendix Trophy pylon with her P-35 in the background and the words: "Jacqueline Cochran Pioneer Pilot."
Estimated Value $5,000-UP.
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