"In Doris Rich s latest aviation biography, barefoot, illiterate Bessie Pittman reinvents herself as Jacqueline Cochran, the brash beautician who set more speed and altitude records than any pilot in history. . . . Rich illuminates the lesser-known facts of this under-appreciated pioneer and lights a belated candle for her too."--Air and Space

History has proven Earhart to be the favorite, but Cochran undoubtedly was the superior pilot: determined to be not just the best woman pilot but to be the best pilot, period, she broke countless aviation records for...