Betty Skelton, 'fastest woman on Earth,' dies at 85

Betty Skelton in her Pitts Special aircraft in Tampa in 1951

[Betty Skelton via Associated Press (1951)]

Times wires
In Print: Sunday, September 11, 2011

Betty Skelton, 85, a daredevil pilot who was a three-time national aerobatics champion and became known as the "fastest woman on Earth" when she set speed records in airplanes and automobiles, died of cancer on Aug. 31 in the Villages. She made her first solo flight — illegally — at age 12 and went on to become a pioneering and charismatic pilot in the days of propellers and open cockpits. She gave her first aerobatics performance at 19, appearing in the same show in Jacksonville in which the Navy's precision flight team, the Blue Angels, debuted in 1946.

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