Wally Funk

Early life

Funk was born in Las Vegas, New Mexico, on February 1, 1939, and grew up in Taos, New Mexico. Her parents owned a variety store, and the family collected artwork from Taos art colony artists who traded pieces to settle debts. As a one-year-old, she was taken to an airport and approached a Douglas DC-3, trying to turn a nut on its wheel. She built model airplanes and ships, and by age seven was making planes from balsa wood.

At nine she had her first flying lesson. An accomplished outdoorswoman, she rode bikes and horses, skied, hunted, and fished. At 14 she became an expert marksman, receiving the Distinguished Rifleman's Award, and represented the southwestern United States as a top female skier in slalom and downhill races.

Education and flight school

In high school, Funk was barred from courses like mechanical drawing and auto mechanics because of her gender, so she left early at 16 to attend Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri. There she joined the 'Flying Susies' and ranked first in her class of 24 fliers, graduating in 1958 with a pilot's license and an Associate of Arts degree.

She then earned a Bachelor of Science in Secondary Education at Oklahoma State University, drawn by its 'Flying Aggies' program. At OSU she obtained numerous aviation certificates and ratings, including Commercial, Single-engine Land, Multi-engine Land, Single-engine Sea, Instrument, Flight Instructor's, and all Ground Instructor's ratings. She was elected an officer of the Flying Aggies and won the 'Outstanding Female Pilot' trophy and the 'Alfred Alder Memorial Trophy' two years running.

Aviation career

At 20, Funk became a professional aviator, taking her first job at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, as a civilian flight instructor for U.S. Army officers, the first female flight instructor at a U.S. military base. In 1961 she worked as a certified flight instructor, charter, and chief pilot in Hawthorne, California. She earned her Airline Transport Rating in 1968, the 58th woman in the U.S. to do so, but was turned away by commercial airlines because of her sex.

In 1971 she became the first woman to complete the FAA's General Aviation Operations Inspector Academy course, working as a field examiner and later as a SWAP specialist. In 1974 she was hired by the NTSB as its first female Air Safety Investigator, investigating 450 accidents including a probable mob hit and a fatal crash at a mortuary. She discovered that small-plane crash victims often have jewelry, shoes, and clothes stripped off by impact. She also competed in air races, placing second in the 1975 Palms to Pines All Women Air Race and winning the 1975 Pacific Air Race against 80 competitors.

Space career

In February 1961, Funk volunteered for the 'Women in Space' Program run by William Randolph Lovelace. Despite being younger than the recruiting age range, she was invited and became one of 13 graduates, the youngest at 21. The group was dubbed the 'Mercury 13'. In testing, she scored better than John Glenn on some tests and set a record by staying in a sensory deprivation tank for 10 hours and 35 minutes without hallucinating.

Her overall score was third best, but the program was canceled before the final test. Funk later applied to NASA three times but was rejected for lacking an engineering degree or test pilot background. In 1995 she and six other Mercury 13 members were invited guests at Eileen Collins's Space Shuttle launch. In 2012 she put money down for a Virgin Galactic flight.

On July 1, 2021, Blue Origin announced she would fly on the first New Shepard flight on July 20, 2021, alongside Jeff Bezos, his brother Mark, and Oliver Daemen. At 82, she became the oldest person in space, a record surpassed later that year by William Shatner.

Did You Know?

• Funk was the youngest of the Mercury 13, joining at age 21 despite the program's recruiting age range of 25–40.
• At 14, she received the Distinguished Rifleman's Award, and the NRA sent her shooting results to President Dwight Eisenhower, who wrote back.