Betty Skelton The First Lady of Firsts June 28, 1926 – August 31, 2011

Early Years She was born Betty Skelton in Pensacola, Florida on June 28, 1926. Her parents were teenagers and Betty was their only child As a toddler, she was fascinated by the airplanes that flew over her home near the  Naval Air Station and preferred model airplanes over dolls. When she turned eight, she started reading books on aviation and made her parents realize that she was serious about flying.

Aerobatics She received her private pilot license at the age of 16, but has been flying since the age of 12 years. She graduated from high school in 1944 and wanted a career in aviation, so she claimed to be 18 to get a job with Eastern Airlines as a clerk, working at night. The job allowed her to rent planes and fly during the day. She earned ratings for single and multi-engine on land and sea. At age 18, she received her Commercial Pilot License and was certified as a flight instructor the following year, so she began teaching at Tampa's Peter O. Knight Airport. She joined the Civil Air Patrol a few years after it was formed in late 1941.

Aerobatics She was taught to loop and roll by Clem Whitteneck who is a famous aerobatic pilot. She mastered simple aerobatic maneuvers in two weeks and performed in shows because the military and commercial airliners did not accept female pilots. In 1946 she purchased her first airplane a sport trainer biplane and that was the start of her professional aerobatic career.

Aerobatics Betty performed many acrobatic tricks, but her most impressive maneuver involved cutting a ribbon strung between two fishing poles with her propeller, while flying upside down 10 feet (3.0 m) off the ground. She held the rank of Major in the CAP and became a test pilot. Besides piston-driven airplanes, Skelton also flew blimps, gliders, helicopters and jets

In 1949 she set the world light-plane altitude record of 25,763 feet (7,853 m) in a Piper Cub. Two years later, she broke her own altitude record with a flight of 29,050 feet (8,850 m), also in a Piper Cub. She held the world speed record for piston engine aircraft: 421.6 mph (678.5 km/h) over a 3-km course in a P-51 Mustang racing plane.

Skelton was US Female Aerobatic Champion in 1948, 1949 and 1950 Skelton was US Female Aerobatic Champion in 1948, 1949 and 1950. She donated her plane Li’l Stinker to the Smithsonian in 1985. Li'l Stinker is now on inverted display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at Washington Dulles International Airport, part of the National Air and Space Museum.

Land Racing She was granted an Automobile Association of America auto race driver's license, the first woman with that distinction, then became the first female test driver in the auto industry in 1954 with Chrysler's Dodge division. She drove the jump boat, “L’il Miss Dodge,” in a movie stunt above a 1955 Custom Royal Lancer at Cypress Gardens in Florida. During that time, she also tried skydiving. The National Aviation Hall of Fame reports that "Betty earned a total of four Feminine World Land Speed Records and set a transcontinental speed record.

Astronautics In 1959, Skelton was the first woman to undergo NASA's physical and psychological tests; identical to those given to the Mercury Seven astronauts.

Honors Bill France stated, "I would venture to say there is no other woman in the world with all the attributes of this woman. The most impressive of them all is her surprising and outstanding ever-present femininity, even when tackling a man's job". In 1988, the International Aerobatic Club established the Betty Skelton First Lady of Aerobatics Trophy, awarded to the highest scoring woman pilot at the United States National Aerobatic Championships.

Personal Life Skelton married Hollywood TV director/producer and Navy veteran Donald A. Frankman in 1965. They moved to Florida in 1976, where she kept a seaplane docked at their lakefront home in Winter Haven. She became a real estate agent in 1977 and published her book, Little Stinker. At the end of the century, Betty was taking care of her ailing husband, who died in 2001. In 2005, she married Dr. Allan Erde, a retired Naval surgeon, and they resided in The Villages, Florida. She and her husband, both in their 80s, lived in a retirement community where most residents use golf carts for transportation. She died on August 31, 2011.