Well the corrected answer to this would be Jerri Mock! She was a determined 38-year-old mother of three who left Port Columbus Airport in Ohio on March 19, 1964, and returned there 29 days later to a raucous welcome by 3,000 fans, completing the first solo around-the-world flight by a woman pilot.
Her flight should be considered by aviators to be more technically challenging than Charles Lindbergh's, and more successful than Earhart's. But because of a number of events that collectively worked against her, Mock's accomplishment fell through the cracks of the history books, and the story of her flight has remained hidden for 41 years.
Everything was set for an April 1, 1964, launch when Mock received word that another woman was planning to depart March 15 on a similar mission to be the first woman to fly around the world solo. Joan Merriam Smith would be flying a slightly longer route in a twin Piper Apache, considerably faster than Mock's single-engine Skywagon.
What had been intended to be a pleasure flight around the world and into the history books had become a race, with two determined women going head-to-head in a highly publicized but unofficial contest to be the first to circle the globe solo.
Along the 19 legs of her adventure, Mock faced daily challenges that would test any pilot. Severe icing over the Atlantic, Sahara Desert sandstorms, and a vicious front inbound to Columbus were a few of the weather-related hurdles. While landing into strong winds on Bermuda, she handled the stout Skywagon with precision when faulty brakes couldn't keep Charlie on a crosswind taxiway, sending Mock into a series of 360-degree circles. New brake assemblies were supposed to be mounted on Charlie prior to departure, but in the rush to keep up with Smith's surprise early launch, Mock's crew sent her off without mentioning the brake problem, forcing her to fly much of the trip with brakes that had seen better days.
When Charlie's wheels touched down back at Port Columbus Airport on the evening of April 17, 1964, Jerrie Mock secured her rightful place as part of aviation's history. But in the months that followed her flight, the Southeast Asian war intensified, pushing her news quickly off the front pages of America's newspapers. And after writing her book, Three-Eight Charlie, in 1970, distribution glitches forced the book to have a limited release.
