Funk became the oldest person to go to space on July 20, 2021, at age 82, flying on Blue Origin's New Shepard spacecraft during its suborbital flight, breaking a record held by John Glenn for 23 years.[5] Her record would stand until later that year when William Shatner's flight took place on October 13; Shatner was age 90 at the time. Funk continues to hold the record for the oldest woman to travel to space.
Funk is the last surviving member of the Mercury 13 group.[6] She is also the only one of the thirteen to have traveled to space.
As a child, Funk was captivated by planes. When she was one year old, her parents took her to an airport near where they lived in New Mexico and she got up close to a Douglas DC-3, an early airliner. "I go right to the wheel and I try to turn the nut," she says. "Mother said: 'She’s going to fly.'"[4][8] She became interested in mechanics and built model airplanes and ships.[9] By the time she was seven, she was making planes from balsa wood.[4] At nine, she had her first flying lesson.[4]
Funk was also an accomplished outdoorswoman, spending time riding her bike or her horse, skiing, hunting, and fishing.[4] At age 14, she became an expert marksman, receiving the Distinguished Rifleman's Award.[9] The National Rifle Association of America sent her incredible shooting results to the president, Dwight Eisenhower, and he wrote back to her.[4] At the same time she represented the southwestern United States as Top Female Skier, Slalom and Downhill races in United States competition.[9]
Education and flight school
As a high school student, Funk wanted to take courses such as mechanical drawing and auto mechanics, but because she was a girl, she was permitted to take only courses such as home economics.[10] Frustrated, Funk left high school early at the age of 16 and entered Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri.[8] Funk became a member of the "Flying Susies" and rated first in her class of 24 fliers.[10] She graduated in 1958 with her pilot's license and an Associate of Arts degree.[9]
Funk moved on to complete a Bachelor of Science degree in Secondary Education at Oklahoma State University. While at OSU, Funk was a member of Alpha Chi Omega, Gamma Epsilon chapter.[11] Funk was drawn to OSU primarily by its famous "Flying Aggies" program.[4] At OSU, Funk earned a large number of aviation certificates and ratings, including her Commercial, Single-engine Land, Multi-engine Land, Single-engine Sea, Instrument, Flight Instructor's, and all Ground Instructor's ratings. Funk was elected as an officer of the "Flying Aggies" and flew for them in the International Collegiate Air Meets. She received the "Outstanding Female Pilot" trophy, the "Flying Aggie Top Pilot" and the "Alfred Alder Memorial Trophy" two years in succession.[9]
Aviation career
At 20 years old, Funk became a professional aviator.[12] Her first job was at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, as a civilian flight instructor of noncommissioned and commissioned officers of the United States Army.[9] Funk was the first female flight instructor at a US military base.[3][4] In the fall of 1961, she accepted a job as a certified flight instructor, charter, and chief pilot with an aviation company in Hawthorne, California.[9][13]
Funk earned her Airline Transport Rating in 1968, the 58th woman in the U.S. to do so.[9][14] She applied to three commercial airlines but, like other qualified female pilots, was turned away because of her sex.[14]
In 1971, Funk earned the rating of flight inspector from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), becoming the first woman to complete the FAA's General Aviation Operations Inspector Academy course, which includes Pilot Certification and Flight Testing procedures, handling accidents, and violations.[12][15] She worked for four years with the FAA as a field examiner, the first woman to do so. In 1973 she was promoted to FAA SWAP (Systems Worthiness Analysis Program) as a specialist, the first woman in the United States to hold this position. In late November 1973, Funk again entered the FAA Academy to take courses involving air-taxi, charter, and aviation rental businesses.[9]
In 1974, Funk was hired by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) as its first female Air Safety Investigator.[12] Funk investigated 450 accidents, ranging from a probable mob hit to a fatal crash at a mortuary.[13] She made the discovery that people who die in small-plane crashes often have their jewelry, shoes, and clothes stripped off by the impact.[3]
Concurrently, Funk participated in many air races.[13][14] She placed eighth in the Powder Puff Derby's 25th Annual Race, sixth in the Pacific Air Race, and eighth in the Palms to Pines Air Race. On August 16, 1975, she placed second in the Palms to Pines All Women Air Race from Santa Monica, California, to Independence, Oregon. On October 4, 1975, flying her red and white Citabria, Funk won the Pacific Air Race from San Diego, California, to Santa Rosa, California, against 80 participating competitors.[9]
Funk retired from her post as an Air Safety Investigator in 1985 after serving for 11 years.[15][13] Funk was then appointed an FAA Safety Counselor and became a renowned pilot trainer and speaker on aviation safety.[9] In 1986, she was the key speaker for the US at The World Aviation Education and Safety Congress.[9] In 1987, Funk was appointed Chief Pilot at Emery Aviation College, Greeley, Colorado, overseeing the entire flight programs for 100 students from Private to Multi-engine flight Instructor and Helicopter ratings.
Funk has been chief pilot for five aviation schools across the country.[15] To date, as a professional Flight Instructor she has soloed more than 700 students and put through 3,000 Private, Commercial, Multi-engine, Seaplane, Glider, Instrument, CFI, Al, and Air Transport Pilots.[9]
In February 1961, Funk volunteered for the "Women in Space" Program. The program was run by William Randolph Lovelace, although it lacked official government sponsorship. Funk contacted Lovelace, detailing her experience and achievements. Despite being younger than the recruiting age range of 25–40, Funk was invited to take part.[4] Twenty-five women were invited, nineteen enrolled, and thirteen graduated, including Funk, who at 21 was the youngest. On some tests, she scored better than John Glenn.[3] The media dubbed the group the "Mercury 13", a reference to the Mercury 7.[16]
Like the other participants in the program, Funk was put through rigorous physical and mental testing. In one test, volunteers were placed in sensory deprivation tanks. Funk was in the tank, without hallucinating, for 10 hours and 35 minutes, a record. She passed her tests and was qualified to go into space. Her score was the third best in the Mercury 13 program. Despite this, the program was canceled before the women were to undergo their last test.[12]
Funk continued to dream of going to space. When NASA finally began accepting women in the late 1970s, Funk applied three times. Despite her impressive credentials, she was turned down for not having an engineering degree or a background as a test pilot.[14][17]
In 1995, Lt. Col. Eileen Collins became the first woman to pilot a Space Shuttle into space; Funk was too old to qualify to become a Space Shuttle pilot by the time Collins became one.[3] Funk and six other members of the Mercury 13 were invited guests of Collins at the launch, and NASA gave them a behind-the-scenes VIP tour of the Kennedy Space Center complex.[9]
In 2012, she put money down to be one of the first people to fly into space via Virgin Galactic. The money for the flight came from Funk's own book and film royalties and family money.[3]
In July 2020 Funk published a memoir, Higher Faster Longer – My Life in Aviation and My Quest for Space Flight with author Loretta Hall.[18]
On July 1, 2021, Blue Origin announced Funk would fly on the first New Shepard flight with passengers, one of four on the flight, including Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark, and 18-year-old Oliver Daemen from the Netherlands, who became the youngest ever person in space during the flight of July 20, 2021.[5][19][20] During the successful flight Funk, at age 82, became the oldest person to fly to space, exceeding John Glenn's record at the age of 77 in 1998 (aboard STS-95).[21][22][5] Her record would be surpassed later that year by William Shatner, who flew aboard Blue Origin NS-18 at the age of 90.[23]
She has over 18,600 flight hours,[3] and as of June2019[update] still flew each Saturday as an instructor.[4]
In popular culture
The Flight of Wally Funk is a 2001 album by Australian rock band Spiderbait. It peaked at number 34 on the ARIA charts.[25][circular reference]
Wally Funk is the title of the 11th track on Pleasure Seekers, the 2022 album by The Electric Swing Circus.
Awards and honors
In 1964, Funk became the youngest woman in the history of Stephens College to receive the Alumna Achievement Award, honored in recognition for her work in aviation.[10]
In 1965, Funk was selected as one of the Outstanding Young Women in America, "in recognition of her outstanding ability, accomplishments and service to her community, country and profession".[9]
In 2012, she filmed her life story for the Traveling Space Museum.[3]
In 2017, Wally Funk's name was inscribed on the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum's Wall of Honor "in recognition of your contribution to our aviation and exploration heritage".
In 2022, Funk was awarded the R.A."Bob" Hoover trophy by the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association,[26] for exhibiting “the airmanship, leadership, mentorship, and passion for aviation” that Hoover exemplified, as well as for having a “distinguished career as a pilot and aviation advocate while also serving as a source of inspiration and encouragement for current and prospective aviators.”
Also in 2022, the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum awarded its Michael Collins Trophy to Funk for Lifetime Achievement.
Jacqueline Cochran was an American pilot and business executive. She pioneered women's aviation as one of the most prominent racing pilots of her generation. She set numerous records and was the first woman to break the sound barrier on 18 May 1953. Cochran was the wartime head of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) (1943–1944), which employed about 1000 civilian American women in a non-combat role to ferry planes from factories to port cities. Cochran was later a sponsor of the Mercury 13 women astronaut program.
Eileen Marie Collins is a retired NASA astronaut and United States Air Force (USAF) colonel. A former flight instructor and test pilot, Collins was the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle and the first to command a Space Shuttle mission.
Geraldyn M. Cobb , commonly known as Jerrie Cobb, was an American pilot and aviator. She was also part of the Mercury 13, a group of women who underwent physiological screening tests at the same time as the original Mercury Seven astronauts, and was the first to complete each of the tests.
The Mercury 13 were thirteen American women who took part in a privately funded research program run by NASA physician William Randolph Lovelace II in 1959-1960, which aimed to test and screen women for spaceflight. The first participant, pilot Geraldyn "Jerrie" Cobb helped Lovelace identify and recruit the others. The participants successfully underwent the same physiological screening tests as had the astronauts selected by NASA for Project Mercury. While Lovelace called the project Woman in Space Program, the thirteen women decades later became known as the "Mercury 13"— a term coined in 1995 as a comparison to the Mercury Seven astronauts. The Mercury 13 women were not allowed in NASA's official astronaut program, and at the time, never trained as a group, nor flew in space.
New Shepard is a fully reusable sub-orbital launch vehicle developed for space tourism by Blue Origin. The vehicle is named after Alan Shepard, who became the first American to travel into space and the fifth person to walk on the Moon. The vehicle is capable of vertical takeoff and landings. Additionally, it is also capable of carrying humans and customer payloads into a sub-orbital trajectory.
Ruth Rowland Nichols was an American aviation pioneer. She is the only woman yet to hold simultaneous world records for speed, altitude, and distance for a female pilot.
A commercial astronaut is a person who has commanded, piloted, or served as an active crew member of a privately-funded spacecraft. This is distinct from an otherwise non-government astronaut, for example Charlie Walker, who flies while representing a non-government corporation but with funding or training or both coming from government sources.
Corn Ranch, commonly referred to as Launch Site One (LSO), is a spaceport owned and operated by Blue Origin which is located approximately 30 miles north of the town of Van Horn, Texas, United States.
Janet Christine Dietrich was an American pilot and one of the Mercury 13 who underwent the same NASA testing in the early 1960s as the Mercury 7 astronauts.
Marion Findlay Dietrich was an American pilot and one of the Mercury 13 who underwent the same NASA testing in the early 1960s as the Mercury 7 astronauts.
Bernice Steadman was an American aviator and businesswoman. Steadman was one of thirteen women chosen to take the same tests as the astronauts of the Mercury 7 during the early 1960s. The group later became known as the Mercury 13. Steadman and the other twelve women in the program were denied the opportunity to become astronauts due to their gender. Steadman, a professional pilot, later co-founded the International Women's Air & Space Museum in Ohio during the 1980s.
Women have flown and worked in outer space since almost the beginning of human spaceflight. A considerable number of women from a range of countries have worked in space, though overall women are still significantly less often chosen to go to space than men, and by June, 2020 constitute only 12% of all astronauts who have been to space. Yet, the proportion of women among space travelers is increasing substantially over time. The first woman to fly in space was Soviet Valentina Tereshkova, aboard the Vostok 6 space capsule on June 16–19, 1963. Tereshkova was a textile-factory assembly worker, rather than a pilot like the male cosmonauts flying at the time, chosen for propaganda value, her devotion to the Communist Party, and her years of experience in sport parachuting, which she used on landing after ejecting from her capsule. Women were not qualified as space pilots and workers co-equal to their male counterparts until 1982. By October 2021, most of the 70 women who have been to space have been United States citizens, with missions on the Space Shuttle and on the International Space Station. Other countries have flown one, two or three women in human spaceflight programs. Additionally one woman of dual Iranian-US citizenship has participated as a tourist on a US spaceflight.
Emily Joyce Howell Warner was an American airline pilot and the first woman captain of a scheduled U.S. airline.
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.
Myrtle "Kay" Thompson Cagle was an American pilot and one of the Mercury 13 female astronauts group. She worked as a flight instructor and wrote about aviation in North Carolina.
Rhea Hurrle Woltman was an American pilot and one of the Mercury 13.
Gene Nora Stumbough Jessen was 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 also wrote about flying and the history of women in flight. Together with Wally Funk, Jessen was one of the last two surviving members of Mercury 13, until her death in 2024.
Blue Origin NS-16 was a sub-orbital spaceflight mission operated by Blue Origin which flew on 20 July 2021. The mission was the sixteenth flight of the company's New Shepard integrated launch vehicle and spacecraft, and its first crewed flight. It carried into space American billionaire and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark, pilot and Mercury 13 member Wally Funk, and Dutch student Oliver Daemen. The flight commenced from Blue Origin's Corn Ranch sub-orbital launch site in West Texas aboard the third flight of New Shepard booster NS4 and the spacecraft RSS First Step, both having previously flown on NS-14 and NS-15 earlier in the year.
Sirisha Bandla is an Indian-American aeronautical engineer and commercial astronaut. She is the Vice President of Government Affairs and Research Operations for Virgin Galactic. She flew on the Virgin Galactic Unity 22 mission which made her the second India-born woman to go to space and the fourth person of Indian descent ever to go past the line of space after Rakesh Sharma, Kalpana Chawla and Sunita Williams.
References
↑ Fisher, Kristin (December 10, 2021). "First on CNN: The US gives Bezos, Branson and Shatner their astronaut wings". CNN. Retrieved December 10, 2021. The US government is making it official, Jeff Bezos, Richard Branson, and William Shatner have earned the title of astronaut after their flights to the edge of space. The Federal Aviation Administration will also award Commercial Space Astronaut Wings to 12 other people who have flown at least 50 miles above Earth on a FAA licensed commercial spacecraft, including the crew of SpaceX's Inspiration4 mission. The FAA will award wings to eight people who flew on Blue Origin's New Shepherd spacecraft, three who flew on Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo, and to the four members of the SpaceX crew who spent three days in space in September.
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