Dorothy S Cochrane

Dorothy Cochrane spent nearly five decades at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, joining in 1977 as one of its first female curators. As curator of general aviation and the history of women in aviation, she spearheaded the museum’s first gallery devoted to general aviation, the Thomas W. Haas “We All Fly” gallery, which opened in 2022 to define, explain, and display what general aviation is. A longtime friend of WAI, she drew on decades of WAI conferences and events to reach the general aviation community, and she acquired aircraft for the national collection, including Patty Wagstaff’s Extra 260. She also led the Military Women Aviators Oral History Initiative, recording interviews with fifteen trailblazing military women pilots. A leading authority on Anne Morrow Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart, she received the 2020 Katharine Wright Trophy and retired in 2025.