Park Kyung-won (24 June 1901 – 7 August 1933) was, along with

Kwon Ki-ok Kwon Ki-ok (11 January 1901 – 19 April 1988), or Quan Jiyu in Chinese, was the first Korean people, Korean female aviator, as well as one of the first female pilots in China. She went into exile in China during the Japanese occupation of Kor ...

of the Republic of China Air Force, one of the earliest Korean female

aviator An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...

s. Though it is generally agreed that Kwon was the first female pilot, Park is still recognised as the first Korean female civilian pilot, as Kwon was trained by the Republic of China Air Force. She was the subject of the controversial 2005

South Korean film The cinema of South Korea refers to the film industry of South Korea from 1945 to present. South Korean films have been heavily influenced by such events and forces as the Japanese occupation of Korea, the Korean War, government censorship, the ...

Blue Swallow The blue swallow (''Hirundo atrocaerulea'') is a small bird within the swallow family which is in the order Passeriformes. Swallows are somewhat similar in habits and appearance to other aerial insectivores, such as the martins (also a passer ...

'', in which she was portrayed by actress

Jang Jin-young Jang Jin-young (; June 14, 1972 – September 1, 2009) was a South Korean actress. Following Jang's time as a model and participation in the 1992 Miss Korea beauty contest, she began her acting career on television, in the drama ''Angel in My ...

Early life

Park was born in

Daegu Daegu (, , literally 'large hill', 대구광역시), formerly spelled Taegu and officially known as the Daegu Metropolitan City, is a city in South Korea. It is the third-largest urban agglomeration in South Korea after Seoul and Busan; it is ...

, Gyeongsang-do. From 1912 to 1916, she attended Daegu's Myeongsin Women's School, a

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

missionary school operated by

Americans Americans are the Citizenship of the United States, citizens and United States nationality law, nationals of the United States, United States of America.; ; Although direct citizens and nationals make up the majority of Americans, many Multi ...

; a year after her graduation, on 13 September 1917, she departed her hometown for

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

. Upon her arrival in Japan, she initially settled in Yokohama's Minamiyoshida-machi, where she enrolled in the Kasahara Industrial Training School, spending two and a half years. From 1919, she began attending a Korean church in Yokohama, and later

converted Conversion or convert may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * "Conversion" (''Doctor Who'' audio), an episode of the audio drama ''Cyberman'' * "Conversion" (''Stargate Atlantis''), an episode of the television series * "The Conversion" ...

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

. In February 1920, she returned to Daegu to enter a

nursing school Nursing is a profession within the health care sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life. Nurses may be differentiated from other health ca ...

there; though her true aim was to become a pilot, she needed to earn money for the tuition fees first.

Aviation career

In January 1925, Park returned to Japan, where she finally enrolled in an

aviation school Flight training is a course of study used when learning to pilot an aircraft. The overall purpose of primary and intermediate flight training is the acquisition and honing of basic airmanship skills. Flight training can be conducted under a str ...

in Kamata (present-day

Ōta, Tokyo is a Special wards of Tokyo, special ward located in Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolis, Japan. In English, it is often called Ōta City. , the ward has an estimated population of 716,413, with 379,199 households and a population density of 12,048.65 per ...

). She had initially hoped to attend the same flight school as

An Chang-nam An Chang-nam (19 March 1901 – 2 April 1930) was the first Korean aviator. Early life Born and raised in Seoul, he is believed to have been inspired to learn to fly after having seen an aerobatics demonstration by American pilot Art Smith in 1 ...

, the first Korean male pilot, but it had burned down in 1923. She graduated and took the test for her third-class pilot's licence on 25 January 1927; she obtained the licence three days later. On 30 July of the following year, she obtained her second-class pilot's licence. On 4 May 1933, Park was chosen to fly on a new route between

and

Manchukuo Manchukuo, officially the State of Manchuria prior to 1934 and the Empire of (Great) Manchuria after 1934, was a puppet state of the Empire of Japan in Northeast China, Manchuria from 1932 until 1945. It was founded as a republic in 1932 afte ...

. She flew to

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

on 19 May to meet with government officials there. At 10:35 AM on 7 August 1933, she took off in her

Salmson 2 The Salmson 2 A.2, (often shortened to Salmson 2) was a French biplane reconnaissance aircraft developed and produced by Salmson to a 1916 requirement. Along with the Breguet 14, it was the main reconnaissance aircraft of the French army in 1918 ...

A2 biplane, named the ''Blue Swallow'', from Tokyo's Haneda Airport on one such flight to Manchuria; she crashed 42 minutes later near Hakone, Kanagawa and died.

Early life

Aviation career

References

Further reading