Marge Hurlburt
Marge Hurlburt 1946
Marge Hurlburt in 1946 at the Halle Trophy Race
Born(1914-12-30)December 30, 1914
Painesville, Ohio
DiedJuly 4, 1947(1947-07-04) (aged 32)
Decorah, Iowa
Cause of deathaircraft crash
EducationBowling Green State University
Known forsetting women's air speed record

Marge Hurlburt (December 30, 1914 – July 4, 1947)[1] 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.[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 Women'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 Daily News (Greensburg, Indiana), July 5, 1947.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Moore, Rose. "'Medal for Marge' Finds Home at IWASM". Gazette News Online (Ashtabula County, Ohio), 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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