Joan Merriam Smith, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death
TweetJoan Merriam Smith
American aviation pioneer
Date of Birth: 03-Aug-1936
Place of Birth: Michigan, United States
Date of Death: 17-Feb-1965
Profession: aircraft pilot
Nationality: United States
Zodiac Sign: Leo 
About Joan Merriam Smith
- Joan Merriam Smith (Aug 3,1936–Feb 17,1965) was an American aviator famous for her 1964 solo flight around the world that began and ended in Oakland, California, as she set out to follow the same route as the 1937 flight plan of Amelia Earhart.
- Joan had attempted to become the first woman to circumnavigate the globe by herself, but another woman, Jerrie Mock, set off during the same week and would complete the task earlier.
- Joan became the first person in history to successfully complete a solo flight around the world at the equator, as well as the first person to complete the Amelia Earhart route.
- Among her list of accolades: the first person in history to fly solo around the world at the equator; the first person to complete the longest single solo flight around the world; the first woman to fly a twin-engine aircraft around the world; the first woman to fly the Pacific Ocean from west to east in a twin-engine plane; the first woman to receive an airline transport rating at the age of 23; the youngest woman to complete a solo flight around the world; and the first woman to fly solo from Africa to Australia, from Australia to Guam via New Guinea, and from Wake to Midway IslandJoan was an accomplished and experienced pilot.
- By the age of seventeen, Joan had already obtained her private pilot’s license and soloed for thirty-five hours.
- At seventeen, Joan was also the youngest entrant in the All Woman’s International Air Race.
- By age twenty-three, Joan became the first woman to achieve the Airline Transport Rating (ATR) at the minimum possible age.
- In 1960, she married Lt.
- Commander Marvin "Jack" Smith, Jr. After completion of her historic world flight in 1964, Joan was involved in two plane crashes following some 8,500 hours of logged flying time with zero accidents.
- In the first, Joan was forced to make a crash landing in the California desert on January 9, 1965 when her electrical system caught fire.
- A few weeks later on February 17, 1965, Joan tragically died at age 28 when the light aircraft that she was piloting out of Long Beach Airport crashed into the San Gabriel Mountains near Big Pines, California, killing her and foreign news correspondent, Trixie Ann Schubert.
- She posthumously received the Harmon Trophy for Outstanding Aviatrix of 1964. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Joan_Merriam_-_Agana,_Guam_-_April_1964a.jpg
Read more at Wikipedia