Jeana Yeager
| Jeana Yeager | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Full name | Jeana Lee Yeager |
| Born |
May 18, 1952 Fort Worth, Texas |
| Spouse | ? (1971–1976) William Z. Williams (1992–1994) Dale A. Rinehart (1994–1996) |
| Aviation career | |
| Famous flights | The first non-stop, non-refueled flight around the world with Dick Rutan |
| Flight license | 1978 |
| Awards |
Presidential Citizens Medal Harmon Trophy FAI De la Vaulx Medal Collier Trophy Edward Longstreth Medal |
Jeana Yeager is an American aviator. She co-piloted, along with Dick Rutan, the first non-stop, non-refueled flight around the world in the Rutan Voyager aircraft from December 14 to 23, 1986. The flight took 9 days, 3 minutes, and 44 seconds and covered 24,986 miles (40,211 km), more than doubling the old distance record set by a Boeing B-52 bomber in 1962.
Jeana Lee Yeager was born on May 18, 1952, in Fort Worth, Texas, moving with her family to Garland, Texas; Oxnard, California; and Commerce, Texas. She is not related to aviator Chuck Yeager. Following graduation from high school, Yeager at age 19 married a police officer, but the couple divorced after five years of marriage. She worked as a draftsman and surveyor for a geothermal energy company in Santa Rosa, California, where she obtained her private pilot's license in 1978.
Jeana went to work for Robert Truax who was developing a reusable spacecraft. She met Dick Rutan in 1980 and they soon both set distance records in the Rutan VariEze and Long-EZ planes, designed by Dick's brother Burt Rutan. In early 1982, Jeana set a new women's speed record for the 2,000-kilometer closed course and in the fall of 1984 using the VariEze, she set the open-distance record of 2,427.1 statute miles.
Jeana and Dick Rutan decided to attempt to fly around the world without refueling. They formed Voyager Aircraft, Inc., and Burt Rutan began designing the aircraft. Initially unable to find a commercial sponsor, Jeana started the Voyager Impressive People (VIP) program which became the major source of money to build, test, and fly the aircraft. By mid-1986, Voyager was ready for the flight. She flew as copilot on the 216-hour flight and set a world's absolute distance record--the first time a woman had been listed in an absolute category.
In recognition of the Voyager flight, she received the Harmon Trophy, the FAI De la Vaulx Medal, the Presidential Citizens Medal from President Ronald Reagan (1986) and is the first woman to have received the Collier Trophy--having received the latter two honors along with Dick and Burt Rutan. She also received the Edward Longstreth Medal from the Franklin Institute in 1988.
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