Pioneer Aviator, Auto Race Car Driver. Once known as the "fastest woman on Earth," she established precedents for women in aviation, auto racing, and advertising. She made her first solo flight at the age of 12, held a commercial pilot's license by age 16, and became a certified flight instructor at age 18. Eventually, she got into stunt flying, which evolved her into a full-out aerobatic pilot, performing in aviation shows across the country. Her most impressive stunt was cutting a ribbon tied between two poles while flying her biplane upside down at 10 feet above the ground. Among her aviation achievements, she held the world speed record for piston-engine aircraft in a P-51 Mustang of 421.6 mph, set the world light-plane altitude record of 25,763 feet in 1949, and broke her own altitude record, flying at 29,050 feet in 1951. Before retiring from flying, she held the U.S. Female Aerobatics Championship title from 1948 to 1950, and became the first woman to undergo astronaut testing by NASA in 1959. In 1956, she joined General Motors and became the first woman technical narrator at major auto shows. She soon began test-driving Corvettes and was the first woman to drive a car in the Indianapolis 500. She set the transcontinental speed record from New York to Los Angeles, covering 2,913 miles in 56 hours and 58 minutes in 1956, plus land-speed records for women at Daytona Beach, Florida, in 1957, and at the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah, in 1965. She was also an advertising executive with General Motors, helped launch the Corvette Quarterly Magazine, and was Vice President of the Women's Market and Advertising Department in 1969. She is a member of the Motorsports Hall of Fame, Corvette Hall of Fame, International Air Shows Hall of Fame, and the National Aviation Hall of Fame. Her Pitts Special airplane named "Little Stinker," is part of the National Air and Space Museum collection in Washington, D.C.