She was the first woman pilot to die on active duty in U.S. history.
Mary Alexander
Helen Manning
Sarah Freno
Cornelia Fort
Cornelia Fort. Fort died while on a routine training mission as part of the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron in 1943. A flight instructor, she was conducting a flight lesson over Hawaii on Dec. 7, 1941, when Pearl Harbor was attacked; she barely escaped being shot down by Japanese Zeros. A civil airport is named after her in her native Nashville, Tennessee.