Marge Hurlburt (December 30, 1914 – July 4, 1947) was an American aviator who flew with the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) during World War II and set a women's international air speed record in 1947.

Biography

Margaret M. "Marge" Hurlburt was born and lived in

Painesville, Ohio Painesville is a city in and the county seat of Lake County, Ohio, United States, located along the Grand River northeast of Cleveland. Its population was 19,563 at the 2010 census. Painesville is the home of Lake Erie College, Morley Libra ...

. She graduated from

Bowling Green State University Bowling Green State University (BGSU) is a public research university in Bowling Green, Ohio. The main academic and residential campus is south of Toledo, Ohio. The university has nationally recognized programs and research facilities in the ...

in 1938 and went on to teach school in Ohio. In the early 1940s, she took up flying at the airport in

Willoughby, Ohio Willoughby is a city in Lake County, Ohio and is a suburb of Cleveland. The population was 22,268 at the time of the 2010 census. History Willoughby's first permanent settler was David Abbott in 1798, who operated a gristmill. Abbott and his ...

. The pioneering aviator Jacqueline Cochran recruited her into the Womens Air Service Pilots (WASP) in 1943. Between 1943 and 1945, she ferried aircraft around the country and towed targets for gunners, flying C-60s, B-24s, and B-17s. After the war, she obtained her rating as a flight instructor and worked at the Willoughby airfield, where she began learning aerobatics in the AT-6 aircraft. Not long afterwards, she won the top prize at the women's

Halle Trophy Race The Halle Trophy Race, later briefly renamed the Kendall Trophy Race, was an air race for women aviators that ran for a few years after World War II. History Inaugurated in 1946, the Halle Trophy Race took place in Cleveland, Ohio, and was named ...

at the Cleveland Air Races. In 1947, Hurlburt set a new international women's flight-speed record of 337 miles per hour, besting the previous women's record of 292.27 mph set by Cochran a decade earlier. She set the record in a loaned FG-1 Corsair. Following her record-setting flight, the media dubbed her "Queen of the Air". During this period, she served on the board of directors of the Professional Race Pilots Association, representing the interests of female pilots. That same year, she joined the Flying Tigers aerial circus to raise money for a midget racer she was designing known as the " Hurlburt Hurricane". Only a few days later, she was taking part in an air show at Decorah, Iowa, in a borrowed AT-6, when her aircraft crashed during a slow roll, killing her instantly. The

International Women's Air & Space Museum The International Women's Air & Space Museum, Inc. (IWASM) is a museum in Cleveland, Ohio, that preserves the history of women in aviation and space and documents their continuing contributions. The museum began as a committee of the Ninety-Nines ...

holds some artifacts from her life.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hurlburt, Marge 1914 births 1947 deaths People from Painesville, Ohio Women Airforce Service Pilots personnel Aviators from Ohio Aviators killed in aviation accidents or incidents in the United States American air racers American aviation record holders American women aviation record holders Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1947