Irene Leverton

American pilot

Irene Leverton
Born	(1927-03-03)March 3, 1927
Died	July 23, 2017(2017-07-23) (aged 90)

Irene H. Leverton (March 3, 1927 – July 23, 2017) was an American pilot and a member of the Mercury 13 project.

Life

She was a member of the Ninety-Nines.^[1] In 1961, she was selected for the Women in Space Program.who was selected to be one of the "Mercury 13" project women, passed away July 23, 2017, at the age of 90 in Paulden, Ariz. A Chicago native, she was inducted into the Women in Aviation Hall of Fame in 1966 and the Arizona Aviation Hall of Fame in 2004. With an aviation career starting in 1944 and ending in 2011, she was a pilot, flight instructor and check pilot.

In 1961, Leverton was selected for what is now known as the “Mercury 13” project, a privately funded program that enlisted women to undergo some of the same physical and psychological tests as the “Mercury 7” male astronauts. Although it was never an official NASA program, members of the First Lady Astronaut Trainees (also known as FLATs) secretly trained to become astronauts for America's first human spaceflight program in the early 1960s. In the 1980s, Leverton moved to Phoenix and then to Prescott, where she started her business, Aviation Resource Management in 1985. She was a certificated Federal Aviation Administration Airline Transport Pilot and worked with the Civil Air Patrol squadron in Prescott as a check-ride pilot.^[2] She graduated from San Jose State College with an AA in 1976 later receiving her flight training from Embry–Riddle Aeronautical University.^[3]

References

^ Inc., The Ninety-Nines. "New Horizons - Irene Leverton (7/23/2017) (The Ninety-Nines, Inc.)". {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
^ Garber, Todd Messer, Claire Rojstaczer, and Steve. "First Lady Astronaut Trainees". history.nasa.gov.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ "Irene H. Leverton". January 16, 2016.

External links

Space invaders Salon
The Women of the Mercury Era Archived October 5, 2018, at the Wayback Machine Mercury 13
Irene Leverton flew at a time when women weren't welcome in the pilot's seat Kingman Miner
Aviation pioneer Irene Leverton Embry-Riddle Alumni Association
Born to Fly: Cottonwood's Irene Leverton Leverton honored by aviation community The Verde Independent
Achievers: Leverton continues more than 60 years of flying The Daily Courier