Geraldine "Jerrie" Fredritz Mock (November 22, 1925 – September 30, 2014) was an American pilot and the first woman to
fly
Flies are insects of the order Diptera, the name being derived from the Greek δι- ''di-'' "two", and πτερόν ''pteron'' "wing". Insects of this order use only a single pair of wings to fly, the hindwings having evolved into advanced ...
solo
around the world.
She flew a single engine
Cessna 180
The Cessna 180 Skywagon is a four- or six-seat, fixed conventional gear general aviation airplane which was produced between 1953 and 1981. Though the design is no longer in production, many of these aircraft are still in use as personal aircr ...
(registered N1538C) christened the ''
Spirit of Columbus'' and nicknamed "Charlie."
The trip began March 19, 1964, in
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, an ...
, and ended April 17, 1964, in Columbus, Ohio. It took 29 days, 11 hours and 59 minutes,
with 21 stopovers and almost .
[Mock, Jerrie (1970) ''Three-Eight Charlie''. Philadelphia, Lippincott. ] The flight was part of a "race" that developed between Jerrie Mock and
Joan Merriam Smith
Joan Merriam Smith (August 3, 1936 – February 17, 1965) was an American aviator famous for her 1964 solo flight around the world that began and ended in Oakland, California, as she set out to follow the same route as the 1937 flight plan of A ...
who had flown from a field near San Francisco, CA on March 17, 1964; Smith's departure date and flight path was the same as the aviator
Amelia Earhart
Amelia Mary Earhart ( , born July 24, 1897; disappeared July 2, 1937; declared dead January 5, 1939) was an American aviation pioneer and writer. Earhart was the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She set many oth ...
's last flight. Although they were not in direct competition with each other, media coverage soon began tracking the progress of each pilot, fascinated with who would complete the journey first. Mock was the first to finish. The story of this race is told in a book written by Taylor Phillips entitled, ''Racing to Greet the Sun, Jerrie Mock and Joan Merriam Smith Duel to Become the First Woman to Solo Around the World'' (2015). Jerrie Mock was subsequently awarded the
Louis Blériot medal from the
Fédération Aéronautique Internationale
The (; FAI; en, World Air Sports Federation) is the world governing body for air sports, and also stewards definitions regarding human spaceflight. It was founded on 14 October 1905, and is headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland. It maintain ...
in 1965. In 1970 she published the story of her round-the-world flight in the book ''Three-Eight Charlie''.
While that book is now out of print, a 50th anniversary edition was later published including maps, weather charts and photos.
''Three-Eight Charlie'' is a reference to the
call sign
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign (also known as a call name or call letters—and historically as a call signal—or abbreviated as a call) is a unique identifier for a transmitter station. A call sign can be formally ass ...
, N1538C, of the
Cessna 180 Skywagon
The Cessna 180 Skywagon is a four- or six-seat, fixed conventional gear general aviation airplane which was produced between 1953 and 1981. Though the design is no longer in production, many of these aircraft are still in use as personal aircr ...
Mock used to fly around the world.
Before her death, Mock, mother of three children, resided in
Quincy, Florida
Quincy is a city in and the county seat of Gadsden County, Florida, United States. The population was 7,972 at the 2010 census, up from 6,982 at the 2000 census. Quincy is part of the Tallahassee metropolitan area.
History
Established in 1828 ...
; northwest of the state capital,
Tallahassee
Tallahassee ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2020, the population ...
.
Early life
Geraldine "Jerrie" Fredritz Mock was born on November 22, 1925, in
Newark, Ohio
Newark ( ) is a city serving as the county seat of Licking County, Ohio, United States, east of Columbus, at the junction of the forks of the Licking River. The population was 49,934 at the 2020 census, which makes it the 15th largest city in O ...
to Timothy and Blanche (Wright) Fredritz.
[ Her paternal grandparents were German emigrants. During her childhood, she found that she had more in common with the boys. Her interest for flying was sparked when she was 7 years old when she and her father had the opportunity to fly in the cockpit of a ]Ford Trimotor
The Ford Trimotor (also called the "Tri-Motor", and nicknamed the "Tin Goose") is an American three-engined transport aircraft. Production started in 1925 by the companies of Henry Ford and ended on June 7, 1933, after 199 had been made. It ...
airplane. In high school, she took an engineering course in which she was the only girl and decided flying was her passion. She graduated from Newark High School in 1943 and went on to attend Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best pub ...
. At OSU, she became a member of Phi Mu. She left her studies at OSU to wed her husband, Russell Mock in 1945.
Flight around the world
Mock's flight began and ended at Ohio hometown's Port Columbus Airport
John Glenn Columbus International Airport is an international airport located east of downtown Columbus, Ohio. Formerly known as Port Columbus International Airport, it is managed by the Columbus Regional Airport Authority, which also overs ...
; expedition financing included a loan from The Columbus Dispatch
''The Columbus Dispatch'' is a daily newspaper based in Columbus, Ohio. Its first issue was published on July 1, 1871, and it has been the only mainstream daily newspaper in the city since ''The Columbus Citizen-Journal'' ceased publication in 19 ...
newspaper.
She travelled eastbound, over Morocco, Saudi Arabia, and Vietnam, among other countries. After stressful days traveling over the Atlantic, Mock was greeted by the president of the Aero Club of Morocco and stayed the night in a French home, where Mock reports, "there were no nightmares of thunderheads over the Atlantic. Dressed in red satin, I danced in marble palaces." Mock later journeyed to Saudi Arabia, where she landed at Dhahran Airport. In her book ''Three-Eight Charlie'', Mock says that after landing in Saudi Arabia the crowd of men around her looked puzzled. One of the men approached her aircraft. “His white-kaffiyeh-covered head nodded vehemently, and he shouted to the throng that there was no man. This brought a rousing ovation”, she recalled. Mock was quite a spectacle in Saudi Arabia where women would not be allowed to drive cars until 2017, much less fly a plane. In Egypt, she mistakenly landed at a secret off-the-map military base instead of the Cairo Airport. Traveling the world gave Mock a new perspective and experiences. Flying over Vietnam, she noted: "Somewhere not far away a war was being fought, but from the sky above, all looked peaceful."
Accomplishments and recognition
Official world aviation records: 1964–69
(Sanctioned and accepted by the National Aeronautic Association
The National Aeronautic Association of the United States (NAA) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization and a founding member of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI).
Founded in 1905, it is the oldest national aviation club in the Uni ...
and the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale
The (; FAI; en, World Air Sports Federation) is the world governing body for air sports, and also stewards definitions regarding human spaceflight. It was founded on 14 October 1905, and is headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland. It maintain ...
)
1964
* Speed around the world, Class C1-c
* Speed around the world, Feminine
1965
* Speed over a closed course of 500 km, 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
First woman to
* 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
Awards and honors
* Federal Aviation Agency Gold Medal for Exceptional Service
* Ohio Governor’s Award
* Louis Bleriot Silver Medal(World-Wide award of Fédération Aéronautique Internationale)
* American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Distinguished Service Award
* Columbus Area Chamber of Commerce Award of the Year
* Experimental Aircraft Association Special Award
* Ohio Aviation Trades Association Sparky Award
* Amelia Earhart Memorial Award, 1964
* Aero Classic Aviation Progress Award, 1965
* National Aviation Trades Association Pilot-of-the-Year Award, 1964
* Glenn Hammond Curtiss Silver Medal, Pittsburgh OX-5 Club
* Milestones in Manned Flight Trophy, Trans World Airlines
* Wadsworth, Ohio, Aero Club Special Award
* Kansas 99’s Special Recognition Medallion
* Special Award of Bexley Civic Association
* Women’s Aero Association of Wichita Award
* Award of Appreciation, Licking County (Ohio
* Columbus Transportation Club Special Award
* Sports Woman of the Year, Columbus Citizen-Journal, 1969
* Citation of Wichita, Kansas, Chamber of Commerce
* September 14, 2013 was declared Jerrie Mock Day by an official proclamation from Newark, Ohio mayor Jeff Hall.
Legacy
A life-size bronze sculpture of Mock, sculpted by Renate Burgyan Fackler, was unveiled in the courtyard of The Works museum in Newark, Ohio on September 14, 2013. Mock's younger sister, Susan Reid, modeled for the statue while wearing Mock's knit skirt, sweater, and leather shoes that she had worn on her round-the-world flight. According to Wendy Hollinger, the publisher who reissued Mock's book about her flight, Mock did not especially like skirts, but "was in a skirt because she thought it would be socially acceptable, especially in the Middle East."
Mock's Cessna 180 which she flew around the world, the '' Spirit of Columbus'', hangs in the National Air and Space Museum
The National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, also called the Air and Space Museum, is a museum in Washington, D.C., in the United States.
Established in 1946 as the National Air Museum, it opened its main building on the N ...
of the Smithsonian. In June 2007, Mock flew to Chantilly, Virginia, to see “The Spirit of Columbus” for the first time in many years. Mock "was so pleased to see her plane 'airborne' again". The plane previously was in storage, but with the opening of the Udvar-Hazy Center, is now back on display.
The United States Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Si ...
named a street in honor of Mock at Rickenbacker AFB
Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base is an Ohio Air National Guard installation located near Lockbourne in southern Franklin County. The base was named for the famous early aviator and Columbus native Eddie Rickenbacker. It is the home of t ...
(presently Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base and Rickenbacker International Airport
Rickenbacker International Airport is a civil-military public airport south of downtown Columbus, near Lockbourne in southern Franklin County, Ohio, United States. The south end of the airport extends into Pickaway County. The base was nam ...
) in Lockbourne, Ohio (near Columbus
Columbus is a Latinized version of the Italian surname "''Colombo''". It most commonly refers to:
* Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), the Italian explorer
* Columbus, Ohio, capital of the U.S. state of Ohio
Columbus may also refer to:
Places ...
).
A plaque bearing Mock's accomplishments can be found in the Tallahassee Regional Airport
Tallahassee International Airport is a city-owned airport five miles southwest of downtown Tallahassee, in Leon County, Florida, United States. It serves the state capital of Florida, and its surrounding areas; it is one of the major airports i ...
's Aviation Wall of Fame in Tallahassee, Florida
Tallahassee ( ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2020, the populatio ...
.
Death
Mock died in her home in Quincy, Florida
Quincy is a city in and the county seat of Gadsden County, Florida, United States. The population was 7,972 at the 2010 census, up from 6,982 at the 2000 census. Quincy is part of the Tallahassee metropolitan area.
History
Established in 1828 ...
and was found by a relative on September 30, 2014.
See also
* List of women's firsts
*List of American women's firsts
This is a list of American women's firsts, noting the first time that an American woman or women achieved a given historical feat. Inclusion on the list is reserved for achievements by American women that have significant historical impact.
...
*List of firsts in aviation
This is a list of firsts in aviation. For a comprehensive list of women's records, see Women in aviation.
First person to fly
The first flight (including gliding) by a person is unknown. Several have been suggested.
* In 559 A.D., several pr ...
*Circumnavigation
Circumnavigation is the complete navigation around an entire island, continent, or astronomical body (e.g. a planet or moon). This article focuses on the circumnavigation of Earth.
The first recorded circumnavigation of the Earth was the ...
* Grace Marguerite Hay Drummond-Hay
Sources
External links
Jerrie's Cessna 180
at the National Air and Space Museum
The National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution, also called the Air and Space Museum, is a museum in Washington, D.C., in the United States.
Established in 1946 as the National Air Museum, it opened its main building on the N ...
* http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/mock.html
College freshman essay written by Jerrie's granddaughter
Three-Eight Charlie 50th Anniversary
BuzzFeed article
Ohio V. The World Podcast: Jerrie Mock v. the World, October 12, 2019
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mock, Jerrie
1925 births
2014 deaths
Aviation pioneers
Aviators from Ohio
People from Quincy, Florida
People from Newark, Ohio
Ohio State University alumni
Writers from Ohio
American women aviators
American people of German descent
21st-century American women