Rhea Hurrle Woltman (November 6, 1928 – February 15, 2021) was an American pilot and one of the

Mercury 13 The Mercury 13 were thirteen American women who took part in a privately funded program run by William Randolph Lovelace II aiming to test and screen women for Human spaceflight, spaceflight. The participants—First Lady Astronaut Trainees (or ...

Early life

Woltman was born in Minnesota as third of six children to Ellanora and Leo Hurrle, who had a farm near South Haven. From a young age, Woltman had always wanted to fly.

Career

Woltman attended the St. Cloud Teacher's College after school. After a few years of teaching, she moved to Texas and started training as a pilot. Her first plane was a

Piper J-3 Cub The Piper J-3 Cub is an American light aircraft that was built between 1938 and 1947 by Piper Aircraft. The aircraft has a simple, lightweight design which gives it good low-speed handling properties and short-field performance. The Cub is Pi ...

and then she progressed from a private pilot to a commercial pilot. This earned her rating as an instructor for flying airplanes. Woltman attained her

seaplane A seaplane is a powered fixed-wing aircraft capable of takeoff, taking off and water landing, landing (alighting) on water.Gunston, "The Cambridge Aerospace Dictionary", 2009. Seaplanes are usually divided into two categories based on their tec ...

rating for airplanes with floats and her rating as a glider pilot. She flew competitively, and she also completed one of the major flights of the era for women, a solo flight from Houston to Anchorage in a

Piper Super Cub The Piper PA-18 Super Cub is a two-seat, single-engine monoplane. Introduced in 1949 by Piper Aircraft, it was developed from the PA-11 Cub Special, and traces its lineage back through the J-3 Cub to the Taylor E-2 Cub of the 1930s. In close ...

with floats. Working as a charter pilot, Woltman flew over North America and also flew in the International Women's Air Race and in the Powder Puff Race. In March 1961, Woltman started training as an astronaut. She cleared all physical tests and was a part of the First Lady Astronaut Trainees (FLATs). As next steps, few from the group of 13 went to advanced testing but since the project was not officially run by

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedi ...

, Woltman never stepped into the space. She was one of the thirteen women who passed all of the astronaut tests given at the

Lovelace Clinic Lovelace Health System is a healthcare company which operates six hospitals in New Mexico, five in Albuquerque and one in Roswell. It is one of New Mexico's largest employers with 3,659 employees as of 2020. The company grew out of the Lovelace ...

in 1961, making her a member of the

. Woltman retired her pilot license in March 2014. In 2007, the University of Wisconsin conferred on Woltman and the remaining Mercury 13 astronauts an Honorary Doctorate in Aeronautics, honoring them as pioneers in aviation history. She was inducted in the

Colorado Women's Hall of Fame The Colorado Women's Hall of Fame is a non-profit, volunteer organization that recognizes women who have contributed to the history of the U.S. state of Colorado. As of 2020, 170 women have been inducted. History There was a short-lived recogniti ...

in 2008.

After Mercury 13

never reached their goal after the U.S. government shut down the women's program without their ever being able to fly a space mission. Woltman moved to

Colorado Springs Colorado Springs is a home rule municipality in, and the county seat of, El Paso County, Colorado, United States. It is the largest city in El Paso County, with a population of 478,961 at the 2020 United States Census, a 15.02% increase since ...

in the early 1970s, where she did glider training and towing for

Air Force Academy An air force academy or air academy is a national institution that provides initial officer training, possibly including undergraduate level education, to air force officer cadets who are preparing to be commissioned officers in a national air forc ...

cadets at the Black Forest Glider Port. Woltman was also one of a few professional registered Parliamentarians in the country and worked with the board of directors of major organizations such as the

American Lung Association The American Lung Association is a voluntary health organization whose mission is to save lives by improving lung health and preventing lung disease through education, advocacy and research. History The organization was founded in 1904 to figh ...

and the

American Heart Association The American Heart Association (AHA) is a nonprofit organization in the United States that funds cardiovascular medical research, educates consumers on healthy living and fosters appropriate cardiac care in an effort to reduce disability and death ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Woltman, Rhea 1928 births 2021 deaths American women aviators Aviators from Minnesota Mercury 13 NASA people People from Wright County, Minnesota