How An Ohio Housewife Flew Around The World, Made History, And Was Then Forgotten

[DonViejo]

Jerrie Mock was a 38-year-old Ohio housewife from Columbus, Ohio, when, 50 years ago this week, she accomplished what Amelia Earhart is famous for having failed to do. But in the decades since, as Mock’s life began to unravel, history all but forgot the pilot who made it.

Amy Saunders
BuzzFeed Contributor

Just before the coast disappeared into sea and sky, Jerrie Mock switched on her airplane’s long-range radio and found only silence. She tried again and again, leaning her ear to the speaker, and still heard nothing, not even static.

When Mock departed from Columbus that morning, she had heard the tower controller’s voice on a loudspeaker. “Well, I guess that’s the last we’ll hear from her,” he told the crowd gathered to see her off to Bermuda. He was joking, but suddenly his words had the ring of truth.

In an aircraft not much larger than a cargo van, surrounded by gasoline tanks, Mock was completely alone, navigating to a speck of an island with a compass and paper charts. Unable to report her positions or call for help, she could have become another Amelia Earhart: a woman trying to circle the world, lost at sea, never to be found.

Yet Earhart was a full-time aviator with a passenger who served as navigator; Mock was a full-time mother of three flying solo. Earhart had crossed both oceans; Mock, a licensed pilot for only seven years, had never flown farther than the Bahamas.

Compared with Earhart’s brand-new, twin-engine airplane, Mock’s single-engine Cessna was 11 years old, with fresh paint covering the cracks and corrosion.

more
http://www.buzzfeed.com/amyksaunders/the-untold-story-of-the-first-woman-to-fly-around-the-world

[BlueStreak]

1. This is fascinating, and illustrates how f***ed up the media has always been

They can't help themselves. They don't care much about successes. They just want controversies, blood and horror.

This Jerrie Mock was quite a woman. I'm glad I read that story. Thanks.

[Warpy]

23. Oh, they're absolutely thrilled when men do this stuff

However, Mock was not only female, she was a wife and mother. It was unseemly of her to fly an airplane, she should have been baking cookies and reading Little Golden Books to the kiddies while they ate them, washed down with a big glass of homogenized high fat milk.

That's why they glossed over her amazing achievement. She was a woman out of place and a poor example, certainly no one men would ever want in the spotlight.

[laundry_queen]

2. Fascinating article! Thanks for posting it. nt

[Maeve]

3. I remember the story

We lived near Columbus and I was 8. My mom loved the idea of a local woman doing such a great thing, and I wanted to fly when I grew up (I had a hot-air balloon license for a while, but never took plane lessons).
I think I will have to add her tale to my story repertoire...

[Habibi]

10. I grew up in Westerville in the 60s

and I don't remember hearing about this story at all!

[KittyWampus]

14. HOW COOL IS THAT!? I've never heard anyone say they have a hot air balloon license.

[Maeve]

15. Thanks! I gave up ballooning when pregnant with my third

Just about the time there was a major accident in the Columbus community (balloon hit a tv tower; we knew pilot). A friend got married in his balloon. Sometimes I miss those days...

[DURHAM D]

4. Great read.

Thanks for posting.

[cherokeeprogressive]

5. Awesome Lady who seems to have gotten the shitty end of the stick.

I'd love to sit and talk with her.

[spooky3]

6. Great story--but so sad what she went through afterward. I liked these parts especially:

"In Saudi Arabia, where women even today aren’t allowed to drive, a crowd at the airport erupted in cheers, as she recalled in her book, for some reason appreciating the oddity that no man was aboard Mock’s plane."

"Meanwhile, Bill Kelley, an 85-year-old Newark native and longtime admirer of Mock, realized that if he didn’t do something to recognize her in their hometown, maybe no one would. Although he’s never met Mock, he offered to mortgage his house if it meant paying for a statue to honor her. It upsets him that children don’t learn about Mock in school, not even in Newark. “Any place that mentions Amelia Earhart,” he says, “she should be there.”"

The description of her house makes me wish one of those reality makeover shows would go in and update it for her.

[benld74]

7. Columbus the town if not the state of Ohio should recognize this woman!!!

[Dawson Leery]

8. Shame on her. Does she not know she should have stayed at home

waiting for her "knight in shining armour"?
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=4813189

[ismnotwasm]

9. I was just reading this

Thank you for posting it here

[Jenoch]

11. I did not read the story,

but flying around the world in 1964 does not really compare to 1937 in terms of profound adventure. We had communications satellites in space at that time.

[Downwinder]

19. Official world aviation records: 1964-1969

(Sanctioned and accepted by the National Aeronautic Association and the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale)

1964

Speed around the world, Class C1-c
Speed around the world, Feminine

1965

Speed over a closed course of 500KM, Class C1-b

1966

Distance in a straight line, Feminine

1968

Distance in a closed course, Class C1-c
Distance in a closed course, Feminine
Speed over a recognized course

1969

Speed over a recognized course

Firsts

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

[Maeve]

20. Single-engine, 11 year-old Cessna, with bad brakes

And her radio was out twice, IIRC. Jerrie had only had her pilot's license 7 years and never flown further than to the Bahamas when she took on the trip.
Amazing

[BlueStreak]

28. And no navigator on board. Peole gloss over the fact that Earhart was not flying solo

They call it a "solo flight" but on her first attempt, she had three others on board with her. And on the flight that got lost, she had Fred Noonan as navigator. That's ain't solo, in my book.

I'm not saying Earhart wasn't brave and scrappy, but that ain't the same as being in a single engine Cessna all by yourself for this trip. What Mock did was off the charts.

[DonViejo]

26. ...

Thank you for your documentation and sharing of all that awesome information, much appreciated.

[oldandhappy]

12. Thank you for this post.

I hope this post will help her be recognized for what she did. Amazing how the good news gets buried! But let someone shoot someone else and oh wow, story of the day. Anyway, many greetings to this lady. I admire her. She put herself out there.

[redqueen]

13. K&R

Thanks for posting this.

[LongTomH]

16. K&R and shared to my Facebook page

And K&R for a brave lady!

[theHandpuppet]

17. Thank you for a great post!

I love posts like this and really appreciate your contribution.

[struggle4progress]

18. Jerrie Mock - Fourteenth Leg - Guam to Wake Island

[Historic NY]

21. Great story I've seen her plane at Dulles.

[hfojvt]

22. far out

shared on FB

[steve2470]

24. great story, thanks ! nt

[cantbeserious]

25. K&R

eom

[treestar]

27. K&R

Learn something new every day! I had never heard of her.