Geraldine (Gerry) Mock was born on November 22, 1925 in Newark, Ohio. She has made many records during her flying career; therefore, earning many awards and honors. One of these records was flying around the world.
Gerry did not start at an early age with learning how to fly. She actually started out by studying aeronautical engineering during her college years at Ohio State University. She didn't start to take flying lessons until she was out of college.
Gerry was called the "flying housewife" since she had 3 children when she made her record of flying around the world. She made this trip in an 11 year old single-engine Cessna 180 airplane called the "Spirit of Columbus". She had only 750 hours of flying time and an instrument rating. She had never flown over water before. She decided one night by casually talking to her husband that she was going to fly around the world. After mountains of paper work and making agreements with the countries she would land in and fly over, she was finally ready to go.
Gerry took off on March 19, 1964 from Columbus, Ohio. During the 23, 206 mile flight Gerry became the first woman pilot to travel over both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. She was also the first woman pilot to circle the globe. These are only two of the seven new world records Gerry set. She landed in Columbus, Ohio on April 18, 1964; 29 days, 11 hours, and 59 minutes after she had started.
After this first record Gerry went on to set many more marks. One being in 1965 when she set a new 500 km closed-circuit speed record of 206.73 mph for a light single-engined aircraft. With setting these records came numerous awards and honors; some of these awards being the Amelia Earhart Memorial Award, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Distinguished Service Award, the Federal Aviation Agency Gold Medal for Exceptional Service to Aviation and the Glenn H. Curtiss Silver Medal for Achievement.