Joan Merriam Smith

Joan Merriam Smith
Smith and her plane, December 1964
Born	Joan Ann Merriam (1936-08-03)August 3, 1936 Oceanside, Long Island, New York
Died	February 17, 1965(1965-02-17) (aged 28) San Gabriel Mountains near Big Pines, California
Cause of death	Plane crash
Occupation	Aviator
Known for	Solo circumnavigation of the world by plane
Awards	Harmon Trophy (1964)

Joan Merriam Smith (born Joan Ann Merriam, August 3, 1936 – February 17, 1965) was an American aviator, famous for her 1964 solo flight around the world, in which she became the second woman to complete the trip, by following the equatorial route attempted in 1937 by Amelia Earhart. (Jerrie Mock set off the same week on a different route, and finished before Smith did.) In doing so she also became the first woman to fly a twin-engine aircraft around the world, and the first woman to fly the Pacific Ocean from west to east in a twin-engine plane.^[1] She died the following year when the plane she was piloting suffered structural failure and crashed in California.