Betty Jean Verret Miller (April 6, 1926 – February 21, 2018) was the first female pilot to fly solo across the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five Borders of the oceans, oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is ...

, which she did in May 1963.

Early life

Betty Jean Verret was born in

Venice, California Venice is a neighborhood of the City of Los Angeles within the Westside region of Los Angeles County, California, United States. Venice was founded by Abbot Kinney in 1905 as a seaside resort town. It was an independent city until 1926, whe ...

on 6 April 1926 to Earday Verret and Bertha DeLay Verret during one of the worst flooding rainstorms seen in the city. She had two sisters, Merle and Phyllis. She attended Venice High School, and was drawn to a course called "Radio Shop", having grown up under the traffic pattern of the

Santa Monica airport Santa Monica Airport (Santa Monica Municipal Airport) is a general aviation airport largely in Santa Monica, California, United States, in the Greater Los Angeles area. It opened on April 15, 1923, making it one of the United States' oldest a ...

Career

After graduating, Betty joined the Civil Aeronautics Administration (now the FAA) as an Aircraft Communicator, and worked at several airports in the western United States. She met and married Chuck Miller during this time. The Millers eventually settled in

Santa Monica Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...

, California, where they owned and operated The Santa Monica Flyers, a flight school. She had been flying since 1952 and had become the 38th woman ever rated as a helicopter pilot. She was also an instructor, dispatcher, bookkeeper and maintenance scheduler at Santa Monica Flyers flight and ground school as well as an office manager. In 1961, she became the first woman to solo fly a Hughes Model 269A helicopter, and also helped set physical standards for female astronauts that are still used today by those participating in physical tests at the

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in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The Santa Monica Flyers flying school became the base for planning Betty Miller's historic Pacific flight. With their friend

Max Conrad Max Arthur Conrad, Jr. (January 21, 1903 – April 3, 1979, in Summit, New Jersey) known as the "Flying Grandfather", was a record-setting aviator. In the 1950s and 1960s, he set nine official light plane world records, three of which still sta ...

a test pilot, they got involved in aircraft delivery. Working with William T. Piper, the manufacturer of

Piper aircraft Piper Aircraft, Inc. is a manufacturer of general aviation aircraft, located at the Vero Beach Regional Airport in Vero Beach, Florida, United States and owned since 2009 by the Government of Brunei. Throughout much of the mid-to-late 20th cent ...

, the group devised a plan for Betty to deliver a plane from California to Australia. No woman had yet accomplished a solo flight across the Pacific.

suggested she make the flight over the Pacific and helped design the extra gas tanks for the plane. After significant planning and several weather delays, in April 1963, she flew from Oakland, California, USA to Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, to deliver the plane (a twin-engine Piper) to a buyer. The flight also made her the first woman to fly solo from Oakland, California to Honolulu, Hawaii which she did in just over 17 hours. She started the first leg of the epic flight on April 25, 1963 (with her

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, Dammit, as a lucky mascot) from Oakland, California and took over 17 hours to reach Honolulu. On May 5, she left Honolulu for the second leg of her flight to Canton Island, next to Fiji, and New Caledonia. She landed in Brisbane, Australia, on May 13, 1963. Miller climbed out of the plane wearing a cotton dress and high heels to the cheers of a large crowd. The total elapsed flying time for the flight over the Pacific was 51 hours, 38 minutes.

Awards

In recognition of her flight, she received the Federal Aviation Administration’s Gold Medal for Exceptional Service from President Kennedy, and later President Johnson presented her with the Harmon International Trophy for Aviatrix of the Year (1963).

Personal life

Betty Jean Verret met and married her husband, Charles Miller, known as Chuck, when she was stationed in

Wendover Wendover is a town and civil parish at the foot of the Chiltern Hills in Buckinghamshire, England. It is situated at the point where the main road across the Chilterns between London and Aylesbury intersects with the once important road along t ...

working for the Civil Aeronautics Administration. They met when Chuck radioed her at Wendover airport to report a wildfire caused by a meteorite which he had seen as he was flying over the desert. They went out to find the meteorite and kept a piece of the rock as a memento of their first date. Betty Miller was a member of the

Ninety-Nines The Ninety-Nines: International Organization of Women Pilots, also known as The 99s, is an international organization that provides networking, mentoring, and flight scholarship opportunities to recreational and professional female pilots. Foun ...

and the Whirly Girls clubs, which bring together female pilots. In retirement Betty Miller became an artist. After Chuck died, she moved to

Ocala Ocala ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Marion County, Florida, United States. Located in North Central Florida, the city's population was 63,591 as of the 2020 census, up from 56,315 at the 2010 census and making it the 43rd-most popul ...

, Florida, and then moved to Bountiful, Utah in 2012 with her yellow naped Amazon parrot, Paco. Betty Miller died on February 21, 2018, at the age of 91.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Betty 1926 births 2018 deaths 20th-century American women 21st-century American women American women aviators Aviators from California People from Venice, Los Angeles Women helicopter pilots Women aviation pioneers Women aviation record holders