Marge Hurlburt

Marge Hurlburt
Marge Hurlburt 1946
Marge Hurlburt in 1946 at the Halle Trophy Race
Full name Margaret M. Hurlburt
Born (1914-12-30)December 30, 1914
Painesville, Ohio
Died July 4, 1947(1947-07-04) (aged 32)
Decorah, Iowa
Cause of death aircraft crash
Education Bowling Green State University
Aviation career
Known for setting women's air speed record
Racing career
Best position 1st place, Halle Trophy Race, 1946
Aircraft AT-6
Side view of the Hurlburt Hurricane.

Marge Hurlburt (Dec. 30, 1914 – July 4, 1947)[1] was an American aviator who flew with the Womens Air 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.[2] She graduated from Bowling Green State University in 1938 and went on to teach school in Ohio.[3] In the early 1940s, she took up flying at the airport in Willoughby, Ohio.[1]

The pioneering aviator Jacqueline Cochran recruited her into the Womens Air Service Pilots (WASP) in 1943.[4] Between 1943 and 1945, she ferried aircraft around the country and towed targets for gunners, flying C-60s, B-24s, and B-17s.[5][6]

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 at the Cleveland Air Races.[4]

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.[7] She set the record in a loaned FG-1 Corsair. Following her record-setting flight, the media dubbed her "Queen of the Air".[4]

During this period, she served on the board of directors of the Professional Race Pilots Association, representing the interests of female pilots.[4]

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."[1] 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.[4][8] The International Woman’s Air & Space Museum holds some artifacts from her life.[2][6]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Logan, Marge, and Duke Caldwell. "Margaret M. Hurlburt". WASP Newsletter, September 1947, p. 3.
  2. 1 2 "Marge Hurlburt". International Women's Air & Space Museum website.
  3. ↑ "Marge Hurlburt Killed on First Stunt Flight." Greensburg (Indiana) Daily News, July 5, 1947.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Moore, Rose. "'Medal for Marge' Finds Home at IWASM". Gazette News Online, March 16, 2011.
  5. ↑ Max. "Aviatrix Margaret 'Marge' Hurlburt of Painesville". Local Lore, Sept. 10, 2015.
  6. 1 2 "Wants and Disposals". AAHS FLightline, no. 19, Second Quarter 2015.
  7. ↑ "The Ninety-Nines from 1929 to 1989". Ninety-Nines website. Retrieved Dec. 5, 2016.
  8. ↑ "World Air Speed Queen Dies in Crash". Chicago Daily Tribune, July 5, 1947.
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