Pioneering Aviator Wally Funk Dies at 87

Wally Funk obituary

Pioneering American aviator who was the oldest woman to fly into space aged 82 in 2021 As an aviator, Wally Funk, who has died aged 87, was a trailblazing pioneer for women, breaking barriers for eight decades of a remarkable career. “Aviation has been my whole life; I eat and breathe it,” she said in her 2020 memoir, Higher, Faster, Longer (written with Loretta Hall). She earned her pilot’s licence as a teenager, at 20 was the US military’s first female flight instructor, in 1971 became the ...

By Michael Carlson