Martha Anne Woodrum Zillhardt | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Martha Anne Woodrum September 1, 1916 Roanoke, Virginia |
| Died | May 2, 2002 (aged 85) Roanoke, Virginia |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | aviator |
| Spouse | Jack Zillhardt |
Martha Anne Woodrum Zillhardt (1916–2002) was an American aviator. She ran a successful flight school and served as the first woman president of the Virginia Aviation Trade Council.
Zillhardt née Woodrum was born on September 1, 1916, in Roanoke, Virginia. [1] She was the daughter of Clifton A. Woodrum, Sr. Martha Hancock Woodrum and Clifton A. Woodrum a United States Representative. She attended Gunston Hall School in Washington, D.C. [2]
Zillhardt earned her private pilot, instructors and commercial ratings in 1940, becoming the first woman in Virginia to earn an instrument rating pilot's license. [3] [4] she went on to operate the Woodrum Flying Service flight school and charter service. In 1949 she organized the Roanoke Jaycees All State Air Show. In 1950 she won the 1st Beechcraft Bonanza trophy (pictured) in the All-Woman Transcontinental Air Race (Powder Puff Derby), finishing 18th overall. [5]
In 1953 she married Jack Zillhardt. [2] In 1960 she became president of the Virginia Aviation Trades Association, the first woman to hold that office. [3] [1] In 1985 Zillhardt was inducted into the Virginia Aviation Hall of Fame. [2] She died on May 2, 2002, in Roanoke. [1]
In 2018 the Virginia Capitol Foundation announced that Zillhardt's name would be included on the Virginia Women's Monument's glass Wall of Honor. [6]
Iris Louise McPhetridge Thaden was an American aviation pioneer, holder of numerous aviation records, and the first woman to win the Bendix trophy, alongside Blanche Noyes. She was inducted into the Arkansas Aviation Historical Society's Hall of Fame in 1980.
The Ninety-Nines: International Organization of Women Pilots, also known as The 99s, is an international organization that provides networking, mentoring, and flight scholarship opportunities to recreational and professional female pilots. Founded in 1929, the Ninety-Nines has 153 chapters and 27 regional 'sections' across the globe as of 2022, including a 'virtual' chapter, Ambassador 99s, which meets online for those who are too busy or mobile to be in one region for long.
Roanoke–Blacksburg Regional Airport is three miles northwest of Roanoke, Virginia. It is governed by the five-member Roanoke Regional Airport Commission, which includes representatives from both the city and county of Roanoke. The airport has two runways and an average of 116 operations a day; it covers 912 acres.
Judith Neuffer "Judy" Bruner is an American naval aviator and NASA manager. She was the first woman to serve as a P-3 pilot in the United States Navy. She was part of the first group of women to receive orders for Navy Flight Training in 1973 and was first to earn her pilot's wings. Lieutenant William Andrew Owens was her primary flight instructor. She was the first female Navy pilot to fly through a hurricane. She also attained the rank of Navy Captain. She currently serves as a senior manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, where she has led numerous large programs.
Clifton Alexander Woodrum was a Virginia pharmacist, lawyer and U.S. Representative from Roanoke who was considered a Progressive Democrat for his support of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Willa Beatrice Brown was an American aviator, lobbyist, teacher, and civil rights activist. She was the first African American woman to earn a pilot's license in the United States, the first African American woman to run for the United States Congress, first African American officer in the Civil Air Patrol, and first woman in the U.S. to have both a pilot's license and an aircraft mechanic's license.
Mary Wallace Funk is an American aviator, commercial astronaut, and Goodwill Ambassador. She was the first female air safety investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board, the first female civilian flight instructor at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, and the first female Federal Aviation Agency inspector, as well as one of the Mercury 13.
Eloise or Eleanor "Nellie" Zabel Willhite was the first deaf woman to earn a pilot's license, as well as South Dakota's first female pilot.
Ellen Evak Paneok was the first Alaskan woman of indigenous ancestry to become a licensed pilot. Paneok was a bush pilot, an author and an artist. She was inducted into the Alaska Women's Hall of Fame in 2012.
Dora Jean Dougherty Strother was an American aviator best known as a Woman Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) and B-29 Superfortress demonstration pilot. She was a U.S. military pilot, human factors engineer with Bell Aircraft, instructor at the University of Illinois and helicopter test pilot for Bell Aircraft.
Emily Howell Warner was an American airline pilot and the first woman captain of a scheduled US airline.
Edna Gardner Whyte was an American aviator whose career as a pilot and instructor spanned more than four decades. She was also an air racer who won more than two dozen races.
Mary Barr was the first female aviator to join the US Forest Service, along with being an accident prevention counselor, mechanic in a variety of fields, and flight instructor throughout her lifetime.
Gladys "Penny" Thompson was an American aviator and women's intercontinental air race-air show promoter and aviation publisher-editor during the 1940s and early 1950s. In 1953, she married Miami Herald humor columnist Larry Thompson, and for 20 years until his death, she was featured often in his daily column, "Life With Larry Thompson" and in three books he authored. She founded the Miami-Dade Mother's of Twins Club and the Twins Easter Parade.
Dorothy Swain Lewis was an American aviator who trained Navy pilots and flew with the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) program during World War II. She was also an artist who created a series of cast-bronze sculptures of WASP pilots for various World War II memorial sites.
Hazel Jane Raines was an American pioneer aviator and flight instructor with the Civilian Pilot Training Program. During World War II, she was part of the first group of United States women to fly military aircraft, which they did in a war zone for the civilian British Air Transport Auxiliary. She was later a member of the civilian contract labor Women Airforce Service Pilots. After the war, she taught instrument training in Brazil. When President Harry S. Truman authorized the integration of women into the military, she served with Women in the Air Force and was based in Texas, Alabama, and finally London until her death. Raines was the first woman in Georgia to earn a pilot's license, and has been inducted into both the Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame and the Georgia Women of Achievement.
Gene Nora Stumbough Jessen is an American aviator and a member of Mercury 13. Jessen worked throughout her career as a flight instructor, demonstration pilot, advisor to the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) and president of the Ninety-Nines. Jessen has also written about flying and the history of women in flight. Together with Wally Funk, Jessen is one of the last two surviving members of Mercury 13.
Mary Charlotte Alexander was an American aviation pioneer, one of the first women to become a commercial pilot.
Katherine "Kay" Adams Menges Brick was an important American aviator. She served in WWII in the U.S.'s Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP). After the war she was active in the Ninety-Nines: International Organization of Women Pilots, serving as Secretary and International President. She also served in other aviation-related boards and associations.
Columbia Field, originally Curtiss Field, is a former airfield near Valley Stream within the Town of Hempstead on Long Island, New York. Between 1929 and 1933 it was a public airfield named Curtiss Field after the Curtiss-Wright aircraft corporation that owned it. The public airfield closed after 1933, but aircraft continued to be manufactured there primarily by Columbia Aircraft Corporation, which gave the private airfield its name.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)