Ok. So got some new software that enhances photos. I started with the two black and white photos. In the upper set, the photo is colorized first. Then it is blown up (X3). In the lower photo set, I took the black and white and blew it up (X2). Then I colorized it. What do you think?
Jacqueline Cochran with her modified Northrop Gamma 2G racing plane in 1939.
Cochran grew up in poverty and never really had any formal education. Born in Florida, she moved to Georgia at age 8 and married Robert Cochran at just age 14. In 1921, at age 15 she had a son, Robert Jr, who died in 1925. The two would divorce in 1927.
Initially training as a beautician, she took her first flying lessons in 1932 and gained a license in just 3 weeks. She would study as a navy pilot while simultaneously organising a cosmetics firm, which would grow until she eventually sold it in 1963.
In 1935 she was the first woman to ever enter the Bendix Transcontinental Air Race, coming third in 1937 and first in 1938.
In 1941 she would pilot a bomber across the Atlantic to the UK and become a flight captain in the British Air Transport Auxiliary. In July 1943 she would transfer to the US equivalent and become the director of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs).
In 1945 she would be the first female civilian to be awarded the Distinguished Service Medal and in 1948 was commissioned as a lieutenant colonel in the USAF Reserves. By 1953, she would be the first woman to break the sound barrier, and in the same year would set world speed records for 15, 100, and 500 km courses.
Between 1959 and 1963 she was also the first female preseident of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale, and conducted into the International Aerospace Hall of Fame in 1965.
She continued to break her own records, reaching a maximum height of 16,841 metres (55,253 feet) in altitude and hitting a speed of 2,300 km/h (1,429 mp/h). Promoted to full colonel in 1969, she would retire in 1970. She would remain as a NASA consultant after her retirement.
By the time she died in 1980, she held more speed, altitude, and distance records than anyone in the world.