Katherine Sui Fun Cheung: The First Asian American Woman Aviator
Overcoming ethnic and gender stereotypes, she made her name as one of America’s pioneer pilots.
By Hannah Chan, FAA
Some pioneering aviators strived to break records, such as traveling the farthest or flying the fastest. But in a field dominated by White aviators, some worked to break barriers and popularize the joy of flying among minorities. As the first Asian American woman pilot, Katherine Cheung’s main focus was to break the tradition of quiet Asian girls and teach them to fly instead.
Katherine Sui Fun Cheung was born in Enping, Guangdong (formerly Canton) on December 12, 1904. She graduated from Guangzhou City Pedi Women’s High School in 1921 before moving to the United States with her father at 17 years old.
She and her father settled in the Los Angeles area. Her father worked as a grocer, and Cheung pursued a degree in music. She earned a piano degree at the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music and continued her education at Cal Poly Pomona and the University of Southern California. However, she did not finish her education at USC, dropping out after three years to marry her father’s business partner.
Her non-traditional husband proved very supportive of her endeavors. So it did not faze him when she started wearing pants and an aviator helmet. He did not mind that she kept her family name and did not push her to be a traditional Chinese housewife.
Cheung’s introduction to flight started when her father took her to Dycer Airport in Los Angeles while teaching her to drive. Cheung would watch airplanes take off and land; once she saw those planes, there was no going back.
It was not until around 1932 that her cousin took her up on her first airplane ride. Afterward, she impulsively signed up for flight lessons at the Chinese Aeronautical Association for $5 an hour. “There’s no feeling like it in the world. Being up in the air, the wind blowing, the exhilaration that’s my definition of joy,” she said. “It’s complete freedom. You haven’t lived until you’ve truly felt that.”
She learned to fly under flight instructor Bert Ekstein, and after only 12 1/2 hours of flight instruction, Cheung took her first solo flight. On March 29, 1932, Cheung earned her private pilot’s license (#224717) after passing her flight test at Pasadena-Alhambra airdrome, becoming the first Asian American woman to receive a federal pilot license. The license allowed her to carry non-paying passengers in her plane. When Cheung earned her license at the age of 26, only 1 percent of American pilots were women, and of that 1 percent, only 1 percent were minorities. “I don’t see any reason why a Chinese woman can’t be as good a pilot as anyone else,” Cheung said. “We drive automobiles. Why not fly planes?”
One newspaper from 1936 commented how Cheung’s stature and size did not match her style of adventurous flying. Cheung became a stunt flyer after receiving her license, beginning her solo career in aerobatics performing barrel rolls, loop-to-loop, and inverted flying for audiences all over the West Coast.
As a minority within a minority, Cheung connected with other pilots and the aviation community. In 1935, she joined Amelia Earhart’s Ninety-Nines club, a club opened to licensed women pilots. In doing so, Cheung became close friends with Earhart, and Earhart’s disappearance in 1937 deeply affected her.
She also joined the American Aviation Association in 1936. On July 4, 1935, she flew in a women’s air race from Los Angeles to Oxnard, CA. She also placed fourth in a Glendale-to-San Diego race against Earhart and a dozen other female pilots. In 1936, at the age of 27, she competed in the annual Ruth Chatterton Derby among 24 other pilots, 10 of whom were women. The race started on August 31, and pilots had to race from Los Angeles to Cleveland. Cheung was in the lead toward the beginning, but ended up second to last after encountering technical difficulties.
In 1936, Cheung stated, “I know no other Chinese woman [who] holds a license to fly in the United States. I understand there is a girl in China [Hazel Ying Lee, a second-generation Asian American who briefly returned to China] who holds a flying license.” As one of two Asian woman pilots and a rebel against traditional Asian roles for women, Cheung traveled across the United States, often visiting Chinese communities in various cities and promoting aviation, especially to girls. She observed: “Chinese girls in this country do not care for flying. They all want to stay on the ground.” Traveling to each community, she gave speeches to dissipate the fear of flying and integrate aviation into everyday life.
The Chinese American communities received her well, and she became an icon. To show their admiration, in 1934, they and Chinese American actress Anna May Wong raised $2,000 to buy her a 125-horsepower Fleet biplane. In 1935, a group of LA Chinese merchants also gifted her a Kinner-powered Fleet low-wing monoplane, which she used to tour the United States.
It is unknown how much discrimination Cheung faced as one of the few Asian American woman pilots, but at least one incident occurred when she ran out of gas and had to make an emergency landing at a military base. The authorities interrogated her, believing she was a spy. But in the end, it worked out, and the base “[gave] her dinner, [filled] up her tank, and [sent] her along.”
Cheung was aware of her privilege of being in the United States, where women were allowed to fly. From the first time she took to the skies, her main goal was to return to China to open a girl’s aviation school. She stated: “I hope to interest other Chinese girls in getting up in the air when I go home. There is no reason why Chinese women can’t fly as well as our men.” However, at the time, girls in China were prohibited from flying. She was determined to get girls in China the same opportunity. “The Chinese government put a ban on women flying in China. That made me angry. I decided women had as much right to fly as men.”
When Japan invaded China in 1937, her goal shifted to training volunteers to fly. Chinese American communities raised more than $7,000 to buy her a Ryan ST-A plane to help with the training. Sadly, she never was able to accomplish that intention. Just as a group of Chinese American women was presenting the aircraft to Cheung at Dycer airfield, the same cousin that introduced Cheung to aviation flew off in the plane as a prank. Moments later, Cheung and the women watched as he fatally crashed.
In fear for her safety, Cheung’s father made her promise on his deathbed that she would give up flying. She continued to fly after his death, and received her commercial pilot license on April 17, 1943. She, however, stopped flying shortly after that. The combination of Earhart’s disappearance, her cousin’s tragic accident, and her father’s dying wish made Cheung hang up her wings after 13 years as a pilot.
After giving up her aviation career, Cheung considered becoming a flight instructor. However, she failed to get a flight instructor certificate twice in 1943 and 1944. As a result, she opened and operated a flower shop until her retirement in 1970.
She died on September 2, 2003, at the age of 98. She never set any records for speed or endurance, yet the aviation community honored her before and after her death. The National Air and Space Museum recognizes her as the first Asian American aviatrix. Even though Cheung never made it to China, the Beijing Air Force Museum calls her “China’s Amelia Earhart.” On March 4, 2001, she was inducted into the Women in Aviation International Pioneer Hall of Fame. She is also an inductee of the Aviation Hall of Fame.
Outside of the aviation community, the Asian American communities also honored her for her work. She was an Asian American icon that worked to advance the Asian communities in a White-dominated field. She was included in the 1992 art project, “Passage: A Public Art Proposal for Chinatown,” at Santa Monica’s Merging One Gallery. Artist Carol Nye also pictured her in the 1997 mural, “Chinese American Women of Los Angeles.”
Furthermore, Cheung’s story was included in the play, The Chinese Chess Piece. In 2001, the Chinese Consul General of Los Angeles presented her with a medal on behalf of the Chinese government for her work as an aviation pioneer. In 2004, Disney also honored Cheung by inducting her into their Legends of Flight, including her picture into the foyer of the ride, “Soarin’ Over California,” in Disney’s California Adventure Park. Most recently, director Ed Moy directed a documentary called “Aviatrix: The Katherine Sui Fun Cheung Story,” covering Cheung’s fight against “racial and gender bias to become a daredevil stunt pilot during the Golden Age of Aviation in the 1930s.”
