In December of 1986 Jeana Yeager (born 1952) became the first woman to fly an airplane nonstop around the world without refueling. She and fellow pilot Dick Rutan made history when their specially built aircraft, Voyager, became the first airplane to completely circle the globe on one load of fuel. The journey took nine days.

Jeana Yeager was born on May 18, 1952, in Fort Worth, Texas. Despite her last name, she bears no relation to fellow aviation pioneer Chuck Yeager, who was the first to fly faster than the speed of sound. She grew up in a small town near Dallas, Texas, where one of her parents worked as a school teacher. Early hobbies for Yeager included horseback riding and running track, but she also developed an early interest in helicopters. Yeager studied drafting in high school, a skill that would prove extremely valuable in her later project to design the...