Merle Hunter ©Stars and StripesLiege, Belgium, June, 1958: Aviation pioneer Jacqueline Cochran, president of the worldwide air organization Federation Aeronautique Internationale, talks with Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Curtis E. LeMay, right, after their arrival at Bierset Air Base. On May 18, 1953, at the controls of an F-86 Sabrejet, Cochran became the first female pilot to break the sound barrier; she continued to set speed records into the 1960s. The flight to Liege was another milestone in her career, as she and Mrs. Helen LeMay (in the background at left) became the first women to cross the Atlantic in a KC135 tanker, which LeMay piloted for 4½ hours of the six hour, 44-minute trip from Andrews Air Force Base for a NATO air show at Liege.