Kwon Ki-ok

Kwon Ki-ok (born Pyongyang, Korea, 11 January 1901 – 19 April 1988) was the first Korean female aviator, as well as being the first female pilot in China.

Biography

Kwon was born in Pyongyang's Sangsugu Village to Gwon Don-gak and Jang Mun-myeong as the second of two children. She attended Pyongyang's Sunghyeon School, from which she graduated in 1918; she was inspired to learn to fly after seeing a 1917 aerobatics demonstration by American stunt pilot Art Smith. The following year, she participated in the March 1st Movement, for which she spent three weeks in jail; after her release, she assisted with fundraising activities for the Korean Patriotic Women's Association, as a result of which she was arrested and imprisoned for six months. Upon her release, she went into exile in China. Once in China, she enrolled in the Hongdao Women's School in Hangzhou, operated by American missionary Ellen Peterson, in order to learn Chinese and English. She completed a four-year course of study in just two years. In 1923, at the recommendation of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea in Shanghai, she entered the Republic of China Air Force School in Yunnan, graduating in 1925. She was the only woman in the first graduating class. After graduation, she was stationed in Beijing, and then relocated to Nanjing in 1927. By 1940, she had achieved the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.