Alma Heflin (1910 — 2000), was an American pilot and the first woman commercial test pilot. She was also a pioneering child psychologist.
Biography
Alma Heflin was born in
Winona, Shannon County, Missouri, to Irvin Elgin Heflin and Nora Edith Kelley. As a child, Heflin watched the forced landing of a small plane in a nearby field and decided to become a pilot. Financial limits meant she had completed primary school training with a bachelor's degree from
Eastern Washington College in 1936 when she qualified as a private pilot. Heflin managed to buy her own
Piper airplane and travelled to
Lock Haven, Pennsylvania for it.
She impressed the founder of the Piper Aircraft Co.,
William T. Piper
William Thomas Piper Sr. (January 8, 1881 – January 15, 1970) was an American airplane manufacturer, aviation businessman, oil industry businessman, and engineer. He was the founding president of the Piper Aircraft Corporation and led the comp ...
. As a result he offered her a job and she began as an apprentice mechanic there. Initially she was ground crew but eventually she moved into sales and began flying the aircraft around the country to potential buyers. She flew extensively and attended air shows and other events. In 1938 she was the leader of 189 planes to Miami, Florida got for the ''All-American Aerial Maneuvers''.
In 1940 she and
Margie McQuin took Heflin's new
Piper J-4 across country to
Alaska. It took the pair 13 days to cross the United States. They were unable to fly across Canadian airspace because of the Second World War restrictions and instead the plane was shipped from
Seattle to
Juneau
The City and Borough of Juneau, more commonly known simply as Juneau ( ; tli, Dzánti K'ihéeni ), is the capital city of the state of Alaska. Located in the Gastineau Channel and the Alaskan panhandle, it is a unified municipality and the se ...
. They then flew on to
Fairbanks
Fairbanks is a home rule city and the borough seat of the Fairbanks North Star Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. Fairbanks is the largest city in the Interior region of Alaska and the second largest in the state. The 2020 Census put the po ...
, arriving on 16 July 1940.
On her return Heflin committed to helping the war effort by becoming the test pilot for the
Piper O-59 Grasshoppers being produced in Lock Haven for the
United States Army. She took her first test flight on 12 November 1941. As a result she is believed to be the first woman commercial test pilot.
When the war was over Heflin completed a master of education from her alma mater, Eastern Washington College, graduating in 1949. She went on to work initially with children with intellectual disabilities in the
Tri-Cities, Washington. Heflin and McCormick founded the Adastra School for Gifted Children in Seattle which she ran from 1957 to 1964.
The school then amalgamated with another and became
Seattle Country Day School.
Heflin produced her memoir of her Alaska trip and a novel. She also wrote in professional publications and went on to complete a Ph.D. from
Clayton University
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in 1977. Heflin had been an editor for Cub Flyer,
Western Story Magazine, and
Wild West Weekly as well as contributing to similar publications.
Personal life
Heflin married Archie McCormick 14 July 1942. McCormick was a
United States Air Force pilot Heflin had met during her trip to Alaska. The couple had two adopted children; Thomas James and Kelly Jean. Heflin died in 2000 and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery along with her husband.
Bibliography
*Adventure was the compass, 1942
*Flying Magazine, 1943-1946
*Merry makes a choice, 1949
Sources
{{DEFAULTSORT:Heflin, Alma
1910 births
2000 deaths
American aviators
Eastern Washington University alumni
People from Shannon County, Missouri
American women aviators