Jacqueline Cochran

Jacqueline Cochran, born Bessie Lee Pittman on 11 May 1906 and died on 9 August 1980, was an American pilot and business executive who pioneered women's aviation. The source lead states that she was the first woman to break the sound barrier, on 18 May 1953. Together with Nancy Love she was the wartime head of the Women Airforce Service Pilots, known as the WASP, from 1943 to 1944, a body that employed about 1,000 civilian American women in a non-combat role to ferry aircraft from factories to port cities. Later she was initially a sponsor of the Mercury 13 women astronaut program before testifying against it in a congressional subcommittee. The lead says nothing about her business career beyond the phrase business executive, or about the aircraft she flew.