Park Kyung-won (; 24 June 1901 – 7 August 1933) was the first female Korean civilian aviator. Park is not the first female Korean pilot, however. That title is generally given to

Kwon Ki-ok Kwon Ki-ok (; 11 January 1901 – 19 April 1988) was the first Korean female aviator, as well as one of the first female pilots in China. Her name in Chinese is Quan Jiyu. Kwon went into exile in China during the Japanese occupation of Korea an ...

, who was trained by the

Republic of China Air Force The Republic of China Air Force ( Chinese, 中華民國空軍), or the ROCAF; known colloquially as the Taiwanese Air Force ( Chinese, 臺灣空軍) by Western or mainland Chinese media, or commonly referred as the National Military Air Force ...

. Park is the subject of the controversial 2005

South Korean film South Korean films have been heavily influenced by such events and forces as the Korea under Japanese rule, the Korean War, government censorship, the business sector, globalization, and the democratization of South Korea.. The golden age of ...

'' Blue Swallow'', in which she was portrayed by actress

Jang Jin-young Jang Jin-young (; June 14, 1972 – September 1, 2009) was a South Korean actress. Following Jang's time as a model and participation in the 1992 Miss Korea beauty contest, she began her acting career on television, in the drama ''Angel in My ...

Early life

Park was born in

Daegu Daegu (; ), formerly spelled Taegu and officially Daegu Metropolitan City (), is a city in southeastern South Korea. It is the third-largest urban agglomeration in South Korea after Seoul and Busan; the fourth-largest List of provincial-level ci ...

, Gyeongsang-do. From 1912 to 1916, she attended Daegu's Myeongsin Women's School, a

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a historically Reformed Protestant tradition named for its form of church government by representative assemblies of elders, known as "presbyters". Though other Reformed churches are structurally similar, the word ''Pr ...

missionary school operated by

Americans Americans are the Citizenship of the United States, citizens and United States nationality law, nationals of the United States, United States of America.; ; Law of the United States, U.S. federal law does not equate nationality with Race (hu ...

; a year after her graduation, on 13 September 1917, she departed her hometown for

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. Upon her arrival in Japan, she initially settled in Yokohama's Minamiyoshida-machi, where she enrolled in the Kasahara Industrial Training School, spending two and a half years. From 1919, she began attending a Korean church in Yokohama, and later converted to

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

. In February 1920, she returned to Daegu to enter a

nursing school Nursing is a health care profession that "integrates the art and science of caring and focuses on the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and human functioning; prevention of illness and injury; facilitation of healing; and alle ...

there; though her true aim was to become a pilot, she needed to earn money for the tuition fees first.

Aviation career

In January 1925, Park returned to Japan, where she finally enrolled in an

aviation school Flight training is a course of study used when learning to pilot an aircraft. The overall purpose of primary and intermediate flight training is the acquisition and honing of basic airmanship skills. Flight training can be conducted under a str ...

in Kamata (present-day

Ōta, Tokyo is a Special wards of Tokyo, special ward in the Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolis in Japan. The ward refers to itself in English as Ōta City. It was formed in 1947 as a merger of Ōmori, Ōta, Tokyo, Ōmori and Kamata, Ōta, Tokyo, Kamata following Tokyo C ...

). She had initially hoped to attend the same flight school as

An Chang-nam An Chang-nam (19 March 1901 – 2 April 1930) was the first Korean people, Korean aviator to fly a plane within the Korean peninsula. Early life Born on 19 March 1901 and raised in Seoul, he is believed to have been inspired to learn to fly afte ...

, the first Korean male pilot, but it had burned down in 1923. She graduated and took the test for her third-class pilot's licence on 25 January 1927; she obtained the licence three days later. On 30 July of the following year, she obtained her second-class pilot's licence. On 4 May 1933, Park was chosen to fly on a new route between

and

Manchukuo Manchukuo, officially known as the State of Manchuria prior to 1934 and the Empire of Great Manchuria thereafter, was a puppet state of the Empire of Japan in Northeast China that existed from 1932 until its dissolution in 1945. It was ostens ...

. She flew to

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

on 19 May to meet with government officials there. At 10:35 AM on 7 August 1933, she took off in her

Salmson 2 The Salmson 2 A.2, (often shortened to Salmson 2) was a French biplane reconnaissance aircraft developed and produced by Salmson to a 1916 requirement. Along with the Breguet 14, it was the main reconnaissance aircraft of the French army in 1918 a ...

A2 biplane, named the ''Blue Swallow'', from Tokyo's

Haneda Airport , also known as and sometimes abbreviated to ''Tokyo-Haneda'', is the busier of the two international airports serving the Greater Tokyo Area, the other one being Narita International Airport (NRT). It serves as the primary domestic base of J ...

on one such flight to Manchuria; she crashed 42 minutes later near

Hakone is a List of towns in Japan, town in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. , the town had a population of 10,965, and total area of . Hakone is a notable spa town and a popular tourist destination due to its many onsen, hot springs being within view of ...

Kanagawa is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the List of Japanese prefectures by population, second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-dens ...

and died.

Early life

Aviation career

References

Further reading