Katherine Stinson at the Tri-State Fair, Memphis, Tennessee, October 1916

Katherine Stinson was only the fourth American woman to receive a pilot's license when she earned hers, at age 21, in 1912. Stinson went on to achieve several more firsts: the first woman authorized to carry U.S. air mail, the first woman to fly a complete vertical loop, and the first woman to fly in Japan and China.