With the release next month of Mira Nair’s film Amelia which stars Hilary Swank as Amelia Earhart, arguably the most famous female aviator in history, I felt it was a good time to write about another pioneering aviatrix. She was called the “Chinese American Amelia Earhart” and became the first Chinese American woman to become a licensed pilot. Her name was Katherine Sui Fun Cheung and she is the second individual I’d like to nominate as an Original Offender.

I had the chance to interview her back in 2000 when Cheung was 95-years-old (she passed away in September 2003) and her high-energy daredevil spirit had not faded with time. I asked her why she decided to become a pilot at a time when Asian women were even less than second-class citizens in the U.S. Her answer was straight to the point: “I thought it’d be fun to fly so I did it.” Obstacles didn’t matter to her. She wanted to do something and she went and did it. To her, it was that simple. “I wasn’t interested in being in the kitchen like women were expected to do,” she told me. “I wanted a life filled with adventure.”

Cheung was born on December 12, 1904 in China and immigrated to the U.S. in 1921 at the age of 17 to live with her father. Initially she studied music at USC with plans to become a pianist, but when her father gave her driving lessons in a lot adjacent to Dycer Airfield, she grew fascinated with the planes she’d see landing and taking off and a love of aviation was born.

She married her father’s business partner George Young. Cheung said she would agree to marry Young only under two conditions: she had to keep her last name and she was going to become a pilot. Young agreed. “He didn’t really have a choice,” Cheung said and the affection for her late husband was evident in her voice. “But he was more enlightened than most men (of that time) so it wasn’t an issue with him at all.”

And Cheung was a natural. Her first solo flight came a mere 12 ½ hours after she took her first flying lesson. By 1932, she earned her pilot’s license at a time when only 1 percent of all licensed pilots in America were female.

What Cheung chose to do with her license was even more amazing: she became a barnstorming pilot. Throughout the 1930s, she traveled to fairs and events taking part in mid-air stunts including acrobatic loops and barrel rolls, flying her open cockpit plane upside down and performing spiral dives.

“What’s the point of flying a plane if you can’t have fun doing it?” was her response to why she chose to follow this path.

In 1936, Cheung was invited to join the Ninety Nines Club, a prestigious international group of female pilots founded by Amelia Earhart. Cheung developed a close friendship with Earhart and was heart-broken when her friend disappeared over the Pacific Ocean.

Cheung with the women of the 99s. Earhart is in the center of the first row.

Cheung was the pride of the Chinese American community as well as the Chinese overseas. On more than one occasion, Chinese Americans, led by movie star Anna May Wong who was Cheung’s friend, raised the money to purchase her a plane. When the Japanese invaded China in 1937, Cheung planned to help by returning to China to train pilots. But then, tragedy struck.

As Cheung was about to take the new Ryan ST the community had purchased for her for a test spin, Cheung’s cousin, who was also a pilot, took the plane up himself as a prank. But the plane crashed and her cousin died. This dashed her plans to go to China and her father made her promise never to fly again. Grief-stricken, she agreed to his wishes although Cheung admitted she did fly a few times after her father passed away.

Cheung has been inducted into the Aviation Hall of Fame, the Museum of Flying’s International Women in Aviation Pioneer Hall of Fame, the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum as well as numerous other honors. But for Cheung it was simply about the love of flying.

“There’s no feeling like it in the world,” she said. “Being up in the air, the wind blowing, the exhilaration…that’s my definition of joy. It’s complete freedom. You haven’t lived until you’ve truly felt that.”

You can read Cheung’s obit here. And check out this short video where Cheung’s granddaughter talks about her legacy: