Pilots who flew before January 1, 1917 are called the Early Birds. That’s the cut-off date because that’s when civilian aviation in the United States ceased to exist, in preparation for what would become World War I. Civilian flight had already been curtailed in Europe in 19124.
Sixty-two female pilots belong in this distinguished company, 40 of whom earned their pilot’s license and an additional twenty who flew just for the fun of it. (For example, American Blanche Stuart Scott flew before Harriet Quimby, the first American woman to earn a license, and indeed was part of Glenn Curtiss‘ demonstration team, but she never went through the formality of earning a license.)
Click on the Downloads tab to find a link to a PDF version of the list of female Early Birds, compiled from the appendix of Eileen F. Lebow’s 2002 book, Before Amelia: Women Pilots in the Early Days of Aviation.
There are three lists in the document – a color coded list (by nationality) of women by date they earned their license, a list of women by date they earned their license without the color coding, and a list of women by country to earn their license, plus the names of those who flew but did not earn their license for whatever reason.
Or just click on this link! –The Early Birds