Geraldine "Jerrie" Fredritz Mock (November 22, 1925 – September 30, 2014) was an American pilot and the first woman to fly solo around the world. She flew a single engine Cessna 180 (registered N1538C) christened the Spirit of Columbus and nicknamed "Charlie." The trip began March 19, 1964, in Columbus, Ohio, and ended April 17, 1964, in Columbus. It took 29 days, 11 hours and 59 minutes,

The flight was part of a "race" that developed between Jerrie Mock and Joan Merriam Smith who had flown from a field near San Francisco, CA on March 17, 1964; Smith's departure date and flight path was the same as the aviator Amelia Earhart's last flight. Mock finished first.

In 1970 Mock published the story of her round-the-world flight in the book Three-Eight Charlie. While that book is now out of print, a 50th anniversary edition was later published including maps, weather charts and photos.

Early life

thumb|Mock with father on April 18, 1964

Geraldine "Jerrie" Fredritz Mock was born on November 22, 1925, in Newark, Ohio to Timothy and Blanche (Wright) Fredritz. During her childhood, she found that she had more in common with the boys. Her interest for flying was sparked when she was 7 years old when she and her father had the opportunity to fly in the cockpit of a Ford Trimotor airplane. At OSU, she became a member of Phi Mu. She left her studies at OSU to wed her husband, Russell Mock, in 1945.

Flight around the world

Mock's flight began and ended at Ohio hometown's Port Columbus Airport. Her expedition's financing included a loan from The Columbus Dispatch newspaper. Mock later journeyed to Saudi Arabia, where she landed at Dhahran Airport. In her book Three-Eight Charlie, Mock says that after landing in Saudi Arabia the crowd of men around her looked puzzled. One of the men approached her aircraft. “His white-kaffiyeh-covered head nodded vehemently, and he shouted to the throng that there was no man. This brought a rousing ovation”, she recalled. Mock was quite a spectacle in Saudi Arabia where women would not be allowed to drive cars until 2017, much less fly a plane. In Egypt, she mistakenly landed at a secret off-the-map military base instead of the Cairo Airport.

  • First woman to fly solo around the world
  • Induction into the National Aviation Hall of Fame (2022)
  • American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Special Award
  • Louis Blériot Silver Medal (from the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale; she was the first American citizen and first woman to be awarded this)
  • Women’s Aero Association of Wichita Award

September 14, 2013 was declared Jerrie Mock Day by an official proclamation from Newark, Ohio mayor Jeff Hall.

A life-size bronze sculpture of Mock, sculpted by Renate Burgyan Fackler, was unveiled in the courtyard of The Works museum in Newark, Ohio on September 14, 2013.

See also

  • Circumnavigation
  • Grace Marguerite Hay Drummond-Hay
  • List of American women's firsts
  • List of firsts in aviation
  • List of women's firsts
  • Wiley Post

Sources

  • Jerrie's Cessna 180 at the National Air and Space Museum
  • Geraldin(e) "Jerrie" Fredritz Mock (1925-)
  • College freshman essay written by Jerrie's granddaughter
  • Three-Eight Charlie 50th Anniversary
  • BuzzFeed article
  • Ohio V. The World Podcast: Jerrie Mock v. the World, October 12, 2019