The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
THE CHRONICLES OF OKLAHOMA
Jack Ford. Over coffee, Ford introduced himself as the founder and
president of Fleetway, Inc., a company which delivered American
surplus planes purchased by other countries. The grounded De
Haviland Beaver plane was en route from Canada to a South
American country. More than plane parts, Ford's main problem
was finding single-engine pilots who had experience flying over the
ocean and mountains.14
Cobb introduced herself as a pilot waiting for a job. Ford had no
objections to women flying, but piloting was a man's career.
Through clenched teeth, Cobb informed him of her credentials.
Ford said, "If that's true, you are the rare woman, indeed." Cobb
retorted, "there are hundreds of such rare women."5
A week later, Cobb's telephone rang. When Cobb answered, Ford
said, "This is Jack Ford. You win."16 For the next two years, Cobb
flew planes to South America over breathtaking jungles, through
mountains in the clouds, to exotically named cities in countries
with indistinguishable boundaries in Amazonia but usually in the
middle of civil strife.
Cobb once spent twelve nights in a military jail in Guayaquil,
Ecuador, because they were at war with Peru, the country waiting
for her to deliver a T6. Her school book Spanish improved quickly.
The Peruvian Air Force treated her like a princess when she finally
arrived. During an emergency landing at the headwaters of the
Naya River, Cobb encountered native Indians. They took her up
river on a rickety barge to a village where a train stopped en route
to Cali. Cobb scrutinized the jungle during the train's slow ascent
of the Andes; she held on tight as the train careened down the
opposite side. Cobb chartered a plane and mechanic to take her
back to her downed plane.17
In the summer of 1954, while flying formation over South
America, Ford declared his love for her over the radio. A busy
delivery schedule dictated their sporadic romance at destination
points in South America and in Europe. In 1955 Cobb left her
Fleetway job to become a test pilot in Burbank, Florida, Fleetway
and Ford's home base. As a test pilot, she flew endurance runs; if
nothing fell off or collapsed, the company assumed the plane de-
liverable.18
Cobb and Ford talked of marriage; she dreamed of a formal
church wedding, a vine-covered cottage, and perhaps children.
Ford talked of a justice of the peace and a honeymoon chosen by a
delivery of planes. Cobb loved Ford enough to let him go; his true
376