Janet Christine Dietrich (1926 - 5 June 2008) was a pilot and one of the Mercury 13

Mercury 13

Mercury 13 refers to thirteen American women who, as part of a privately funded program, underwent some of the same physiological screening tests as the astronauts selected by NASA on April 9, 1959 for Project Mercury...

 who underwent the same NASA

NASA

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...

 testing in the early 1960s as the Mercury 7

Mercury Seven

Mercury Seven was the group of seven Mercury astronauts selected by NASA on April 9, 1959. They are also referred to as the Original Seven and Astronaut Group 1...

 astronauts.

Early life

Born in San Francisco in 1926, Dietrich was the daughter of Richard Dietrich, who worked in the import business, and his wife, Marion. Dietrich began flying at an early age, getting a student pilot certificate at age 16. She and identical twin sister Marion were the only girls in an aviation class at Burlingame High School. As an undergraduate at UC Berkeley

University of California, Berkeley

The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...

, Dietrich was president of the UC Flying Club and trained as a pilot at Oakland International Airport, where she earned her private pilot license in 1946.

In 1947, Dietrich and sister Marion

Marion Dietrich

Marion Dietrich was a pilot and one of the Mercury 13 who underwent the same NASA testing in the early 1960s as the Mercury 7 astronauts....

, entered the inaugural Chico-to-San Mateo Air Race and took first place, defeating experienced men. After placing in other local races, the flying twins collected the second-place trophy in the 1951 All-Women's Transcontinental Air Race, known as the Powder Puff Derby

Powder Puff Derby

The Powder Puff Derby was the name given to a transcontinental air race for women pilots inaugurated in 1947. For the next two years it was named the "Jacqueline Cochran All-Woman Transcontinental Air Race"...

.

Soon after graduating from Cal in 1949, Dietrich became chief pilot of Cessna

Cessna

The Cessna Aircraft Company is an airplane manufacturing corporation headquartered in Wichita, Kansas, USA. Their main products are general aviation aircraft. Although they are the most well known for their small, piston-powered aircraft, they also produce business jets. The company is a subsidiary...

, then the world's largest light-plane distributor, located in Long Beach. In her job, Dietrich delivered multi-engine aircraft from the factory in Wichita, KS, conducted test flights for the shop, flew charters and supervised the flight and ground schools.

In the late 1950s, Miss Dietrich worked as a federal pilot examiner for the Federal Aviation Administration, performing pilot evaluations and issuing certificates.

NASA testing

In 1960, Dietrich and her sister were among a select group of female aviators invited to the Lovelace Clinic in Albuquerque, where experts had screened potential NASA astronauts. The women underwent the same medical tests and examinations as Alan Shepherd

Alan Shepherd

Alan Shepherd was a British Grand Prix motorcycle road racer. His best seasons were in 1962 and 1963, when he rode a Matchless to finish in second place in the 500cc world championship, both times to Mike Hailwood...

, John Glenn

John Glenn

John Herschel Glenn, Jr. is a former United States Marine Corps pilot, astronaut, and United States senator who was the first American to orbit the Earth and the third American in space. Glenn was a Marine Corps fighter pilot before joining NASA's Mercury program as a member of NASA's original...

, and the other men who eventually traveled into space. The extensive exams included everything from swallowing 3 feet of rubber hose to drinking radioactive water. Though only 5 feet 3 inches tall and 100 pounds, Dietrich completed the regimen of tests, as did her sister and 11 other women.

While the women waited for the next phase of their program in July 1961, the testing was halted without warning or explanation. It would be two more decades before the United States launched its first woman into space, Sally Ride

Sally Ride

Sally Kristen Ride is an American physicist and a former NASA astronaut. Ride joined NASA in 1978, and in 1983 became the first American woman—and then-youngest American, at 32—to enter space...

, an astrophysicist turned astronaut.

Later career

In 1960, Miss Dietrich became the nation's first woman to earn an Airline Transport Pilot License, the highest Federal Aviation Administration license, which she parlayed into a career of commercial flying that lasted well into the 1970s. Dietrich would work for World Airways, an Oakland corporation that became a key military contractor during the Vietnam War. In that capacity she piloted regular flights between the war zone and World's base at Oakland International Airport. However, the death of her twin sister in 1974 brought Miss Dietrich's piloting career to an end.

In 2006, the International Women's Air & Space Museum opened an exhibit honoring the Mercury 13 - Mercury Women: Forgotten Link to the Future. And in May 2007, the women of Mercury 13 received honorary doctor of science degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. Over a 34-year aviation career, Miss Dietrich accumulated more than 12,000 hours in the pilot seat. Dietrich died on 5 June 2008 in San Francisco of natural causes at the age of 81.