Did Helen Keller Fly a Plane?

Yes! Hellen Keller did fly a plane! An airplane took off from Rome and headed to Paris in June 1946, flying over the Mediterranean Sea. Dr. Helen Keller, an American author who was both blind and deaf since childhood, sat as a passenger on this seemingly normal flight; except for one thing - for 20 minutes of the journey, she became the plane's pilot!

Who Was Helen Keller?

Helen Keller was born in Tuscumbia, Alabama, in 1880 and contracted a febrile illness at 19 months old, which left her deaf, blind, and mute. Helen was incredibly intelligent, but due to her disabilities, she struggled immensely and had quite a temper.

In 1887, after much unruliness from Helen, her parents decided to hire a private teacher, Anne Sullivan. Sullivan first tried to teach Helen by fingerspelling -- drawing letters into her palms so she could associate them with objects. However, Keller refused and failed at this proposal. So Sullivan moved Keller away from the family home to a different building. It was here where the famous recognition of water occurred.

Sullivan used a combination of discipline, patience, and love with Keller, which led to a breakthrough in April 1887. As Sullivan ran cool water over one of the girl's hands, she spelled out the letters "W-A-T-E-R" into the palm of her other hand. She kept repeating this until, finally, everything made sense to her in one extraordinary moment. Keller was ecstatic. "Water!" she said through hand motions. Then she went on to ask for the names of everything around her. An incredibly young Helen Keller went on to create more than 60 hand signs for communication and learned to identify people by the vibration of their footsteps. The door to the world had opened at last.

Motivated by resiliency, Keller continued to face life's challenges head-on. She was an accomplished author, activist, scholar, and lecturer, and on one fateful day in June of 1946, she became a pilot.

Helen, The Pilot

While most people take their first flight lesson in a small, single-engine plane, Helen Keller was no mortal. Despite being deaf and blind, she decided to tackle a four-engine Douglas C-54 Skymaster. She became the first person without sight or sound to fly an aircraft unaided. The pilot flew her over the Mediterranean Sea and then handed over control of the plane. For 20 minutes, Keller soared through the skies independently before returning the controls.

Keller isn't the only person who is both deaf and blind to fly a plane. A 15-year-old deaf-blind girl in 2002 demonstrated how Tactical Sign Language could be used for flight instruction, expanding what was previously thought possible. By using this method of communication and sitting in the right seat of a Piper Warrior, she was able to control the plane with one hand and communicate with her interpreter through motions on the palm of her other hand.

Remembering Helen For The Incredible Woman, She Was

Anne Sullivan played a pivotal role in Keller's ability to communicate. Through Sullivan's help, Keller excelled and went on to college, where she graduated Cum Laude from Radcliffe College in 1904. Despite being deaf and blind, she received many honors throughout her lifetime, including the Theodore Roosevelt Distinguished Service Medal in 1936 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1964. Keller also published 12 books and several articles over the course of her lifetime. People recognized her incredible story and success by electing her into the Women's Hall of Fame in 1965

Helen Keller was a pioneer, working for the American Foundation for the Blind for over 40 years. She changed the way the world thought about people with these disabilities and helped to improve their quality of life. The social stigma surrounding blindness was rampant during Keller's lifetime, and skepticism about the capability of deaf-blind people was also common. However, Keller helped to remove the negative connotations associated with blindness through her reputation as a writer, communicator, activist, and of course, a pilot!