Violet Cowden Violet " Vi " Cowden ( October 1 , 1916 – April 10 , 2011 ) was an American aviator who served as a member of the Women Airforce Service Pilots ( WASP ) during World War II . Cowden was one of the surviving members of the 1 , 074 WASPs , who were the first women to fly American military planes . Cowden was born Violet Thurn and raised on a farm in Bowdle South Dakota . She taught first grade students in Spearfish , South Dakota . Cowden was issued her pilot ' s license before the United States entered World War II . She initially enlisted in the a volunteer women ' s emergency service program following the Attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 . However , before her basic training began , Cowden joined another all women ' s program created by Jacqueline Cochran and General Hap Arnold through the Army Air Corps , which came to be called the Women Airforce Service Pilots , or WASP . However , Cowden who weighed only 92 pounds and stood at just 5 - feet - 2 - inches tall at the time , was too short and too light to join the WASPs . To quickly gain weight she ate bananas and drank milk and to make herself taller she tied a wrap in her hair . She successfully gained the eight additional pounds and two inches needed to enlist . Cowden was commissioned as a member of the WASPs in March 1943 . She successfully flew her first solo flight on March 5 , 1943 . The WASPs , including Cowden , became the first women in US history to pilot American military planes . Cowden and other members of WASP did not see combat during World War II . Their mission was to fly military planes from domestic military factories to training sites or military base s in the United States . Cowden became one of only 114 WASP to fly the fighter planes during the war , including the P - 47 Thunderbolt , P - 39 AiraCobra , P - 63 Kingcobra , and her favorite and the " love of her life , " the P - 51 Mustang . Cowden , a long - time resident of Huntington Beach , California , remained very active in community affairs throughout her life . She served as the Grand Marshall of Huntington Beach ' s Independence Day parade . Cowden was also a member of the board of directors for the Bolsa Chica Land Trust and participated in the city ' s Veterans Day celebration and beach restorations . She participated in " Living History " in which World War II veterans gave speeches and presentations at high schools in southern California . and was on the Board of Directors at the Yanks Air Museum in Chino , California where they display many of the fighter planes that she flew during World War II and now display her WASP uniform . Cowden was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 2010 , as one of only 300 surviving members of the Women Airforce Service Pilots . Supporters had lobbied for the recognition for WASP for more than a decade . She was also the subject of the 2010 independent film , , directed by Mark & Christine Bonn . Among the 10 awards that her film won was the Audience Award for short films at the Newport Beach Film Festival in 2010 . ( in less than a year it won 5 Audience Awards and 5 Best Documentary Short awards from film festivals around North America ) . Cowden went skydiving with the elite Army Golden Knights when she was 89 years old . On her 90th birthday she decided to go paragliding . In 2010 , Cowden took part in an aerial mock dogfight over Fullerton Municipal Airport in Orange County , California . And in 2009 she again flew in the Collings Foundation P - 51c Mustang , co - piloting and taking the stick for take off , landing & some fast flying in between . Violet Cowden died at 8 : 34 p . m . on April 10 , 2011 , at Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach , California , at the age of 94 .