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Presidential Citizens Medal Recipient Jeana Yeager
In 1986, Jeana Yeager co-piloted the Voyager, the first aircraft to circumnavigate the globe non-stop, without refueling.
 Yeager was born on May 18, 1952, in Fort Worth, Texas. Although horses and track were her passions as a young adult, she was fascinated by helicopters. After relocating between Texas and California a couple of times as a child, she moved to Santa Rosa, Calif., in 1977, where she worked as a draftsman and surveyor for a geothermal energy company. The following year, she earned her private pilots license, with the intention of learning to fly helicopters.
During this time, she met Bob Truax, a rocket scientist, who offered her a job working at Project Private Enterprise, which sought to develop a reusable spacecraft.
At a 1980 air show in Chino, Calif., Yeager met and eventually teamed up with pilot Dick Rutanand his brother, designer Burt Rutan. Using Burts aircraft, they set several aircraft speed and endurance records. In early 1982, Yeager set a new womans speed record for the 2,000-kilometer closed course.
Getting funds for the Voyager project was a problem, until Yeager initiated the Voyager Impressive People program, which became the major source of money to build, test and fly the aircraft.
By 1986, the Voyager was ready for the flight. It had taken five years to build and flight test the plane to the point at which it could potentially make history.
The journey began on Dec. 14, 1986 at Edwards Air Force Base, and successfully ended here nine days and 28,000 miles later.
During the flight, there were several close calls, including one during a storm, when Yeager and Rutan considered landing. This would have put an end to their dream of making history. They persevered, however, and succeeded in setting a record for non-stop flight around the world. The Voyager is now installed at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. The 216-hour flight earned Yeager a worlds absolute distance record -- the first time a woman had been listed in an "absolute" category. Yeagers other honors include the Collier Trophy (the first time ever awarded to a woman), a Presidential Citizens Medal, and the Gold Medal from the Royal Aero Club of Great Britain, among others.
CITATION:
When Jeana Yeager landed at Edwards Air Force Base, completing her historic and record-setting non-stop flight around the globe aboard the Voyager, America gained another hero. She reminded us all that aviation history is still being written by men and women with the spirit of adventure and derring-do
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Citizens Medal History
