News summary produced by Claude AI
Wally Funk, an aviation pioneer who spent over eight decades advancing opportunities for women in flight, passed away at age 87. Throughout her career, she achieved numerous firsts in aviation, becoming the US military’s first female flight instructor at 20, the FAA’s first female flight inspector in 1971, and the first woman instructor for the National Transport Safety Board three years later.
Funk’s most significant unfulfilled ambition centered on spaceflight. In 1960, she joined the Mercury 13 program after learning that fellow pilot Jerrie Cobb had been tested for space missions. Despite performing exceptionally well in the same rigorous training and testing as NASA’s seven male Mercury astronauts—including spending over 10 hours in an isolation tank—NASA declined to send her to space, restricting the program to military pilots who were exclusively male at the time. This decision persisted even after the Soviet Union’s Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman in space in 1963. Sally Ride eventually became America’s first female astronaut in 1983, followed by Eileen Collins as the first shuttle pilot-commander in 1999.
Following her rejection by NASA, Funk pursued alternative pathways to space, training in Russia at the Yuri Gagarin Centre and conducting zero-gravity training in 2000. Her opportunity finally came in 2021 when she joined Jeff Bezos and his brother on Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital flight at age 82, making her the oldest woman to reach space. Though William Shatner and Ed Dwight later exceeded her age record, she retained the distinction of being the oldest woman to fly into space.
Beyond her space aspirations, Funk built a substantial aviation career. Born in Las Vegas, New Mexico, and raised in Taos, she attended Stephens College in Missouri and Oklahoma State University. When major airlines refused to hire female pilots, she became a flight instructor, charter pilot, and eventually founded a flight school in Taos where she trained over 800 pilots. She competed in transcontinental air races and served as a spokesperson for workplace equality. Her achievements earned her induction into the Women in Aviation International Pioneer Hall of Fame in 1995 and placement on the Wall of Honor at the National Air and Space Museum in 2017.