Betty Skelton Erde

Betty Skelton Frankman Erde (June 28, 1926 – August 31, 2011) was an aerobatics pilot, test driver, and advertising executive who set 17 aviation and automobile records.

Early years She was born Betty Skelton in Pensacola, Florida on June 28, 1926. Her parents were teenagers and she was their only child. As a toddler, she was fascinated by the airplanes that flew over her home near the Naval Air Station and preferred model airplanes over dolls. When she turned eight, she started reading books on aviation and made her parents realize that she was serious about flying. Whenever they could, the family spent time at the municipal airport. She would talk pilots into letting her ride on local flights.

Kenneth Wright, a Navy ensign, took a special interest in the Skeltons and provided instruction to Betty and her parents. He allowed her to solo in his Taylorcraft airplane when she was 12 years old, which was not permitted. After receiving her Civil Aviation Authority private pilot's license at age 16, she qualified for the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) program, but the minimum age was 18½, so she was forced to wait.

While she was a teenager, Skelton flew whenever she could. She graduated from high school in 1944 and wanted a career in aviation, so she claimed to be 18 to get a job with Eastern Airlines as a clerk, working at night. The job allowed her to rent planes and fly during the day. She earned ratings for single and multiengine on land and sea.

Aerobatics

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Skelton's father, David, organized an amateur airshow in 1945 to raise funds for the local Jaycees. She held the world speed record for piston-engined aircraft: over a 3-km course in a P-51 Mustang racing plane.

She became hostess of Van Wilson's Greeting Time, a radio show in 1950.

The National Aviation Hall of Fame reports, "Betty earned a total of four Feminine World Land Speed Records and set a transcontinental speed record." the last one being in 1956. That same year, she broke Cannonball Baker's 40-year record for the Transcontinental Auto Race from New York to Los Angeles. Between 1956 and 1957, Harley Earl and Bill Mitchell designed a special, translucent gold Corvette for her, which she drove to Daytona in 1957 to serve as the NASCAR pace car. She helped launch Corvette News, the company's internal employee magazine, and served as its editor for many years. The publication is now known as Corvette Quarterly. She became vice president of Campbell-Ewald's new Women's Market and Advertising department in 1969, She became a real estate agent in 1977 and published her book, Little Stinker. At the end of the century, Skelton was taking care of her ailing husband, who died in 2001, and she flew less often. "I just felt I wasn't as safe as I used to be," she said.

Hall of Fame inductions Florida Sports Hall of Fame, 1977 International Motorsports Hall of Fame Women in Aviation, Pioneer Hall of Fame, 1997 International Council of Air Shows Foundation Hall of Fame, 2003 National Aviation Hall of Fame, 2005 Motorsports Hall of Fame of America, 2008 Automotive Hall of Fame, 2025

Honors Bill France stated, "I would venture to say there is no other woman in the world with all the attributes of this woman. The most impressive of them all is her surprising and outstanding ever-present femininity, even when tackling a man's job". awarded to the highest-scoring woman pilot at the United States National Aerobatic Championships.