Mary Calcaño

First Venezuelan woman to hold a pilot's license (1939); founded Venezuela's first civil pilots' club

Mary Calcaño (María Asunción Calcaño Ruiz) worked in translation, sales, and advertising for a Piper aircraft company before she ever became a licensed pilot herself — meaning she knew the aviation business from the ground up before she ever flew. She trained at Roosevelt Field on Long Island, New York, and earned her U.S. pilot's license in November 1939, followed by her official Venezuelan pilot's certificate in December 1940, becoming the first Venezuelan woman to hold a pilot's license. In February 1940, she flew solo from Barcelona, Venezuela to her hometown of Ciudad Bolívar, a real cross-country solo flight in her home country. During World War II, she took on genuine operational wartime work: she flew for the U.S. Air Force, ferrying aircraft parts along the supply route from Seattle to Britain — real logistics flying under wartime pressure, not a ceremonial role. In 1941, she became the first female pilot ever to land at the Air Force base in Dayton, Ohio, a notable milestone in its own right. After the war, she shifted from pioneering pilot to institution-builder: in 1946, she founded Ala Venezolana, Venezuela's first civil pilots' club, and in 1959 co-founded the country's first private civil aviation school, building the actual infrastructure that gave the next generation of Venezuelans a path into aviation. She married an American, Frank Keeler, and was later known as Mary Keeler.

As a wartime ferry pilot, Calcaño flew aircraft parts along a real military supply route under wartime logistics pressure; afterward, she built and ran the actual civil aviation clubs and schools that trained Venezuela's next generation of pilots.

Ferry flying — moving aircraft and parts between locations under time and logistics pressure — remains a real, current sector of aviation work, directly connected to the same route-planning and fuel-management skills taught in flight planning.

She worked in Piper aircraft sales and advertising before she ever became a licensed pilot herself.She was the first female pilot ever to land at the Air Force base in Dayton, Ohio, in 1941.

Wikipedia

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• Mary Calcaño