Aviation pioneer and Olympic athlete Iris Cummings, who is also known by married name Iris Critchell, was on December 21, 1920, in Los Angeles. She attended the 1932 Summer Olympics in that city and shortly thereafter began swimming competitively. Cummings went on to win a large number of local and regional tournaments in this sport. Whenever the weather was too cold for swimming practice, a determined and disciplined Cummings remained physically active by cycling instead.
Cummings’ record of achievements as a swimmer resulted in her taking part in the 1936 Summer Olympics as a member of the United States’ delegation. She competed in the women’s 200-meter (656.2-feet) breaststroke at those games, but was eliminated after placing fourth in her heat in the opening round. Despite this setback, she remained a formidable swimmer in various competitions over the next few years. Cummings retired from the sport by 1940 and, the following year, graduated from the University of Southern California (USC) with a degree in physical sciences and math. At around this point in her life, Cummings began more fully pursuing what had become another one of her strong interests: aviation.
Cummings’ interest in human flight can be traced as far back as 1928, when her father took her to the National Air Races at present-day Los Angeles International Airport. “I watched Charles Lindbergh at the peak of his fame fly in the air show,” she later recalled.
In 1939, Cummings became one of the first people accepted in to USC’s civilian pilot training program. After completing an advanced aerobatics course as part of this program in 1940, Cummings earned her pilot’s license.
By the time she graduated from USC the following year, Cummings was qualified to start serving as a flight instructor. She worked in this capacity until December 1942, when – a year after the United States’ entry into World War II on the side of the Allies – she joined the Women’s Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron (WAFS), a trailblazing organization of women civilian pilots whose duties included testing and ferrying various types of aircraft. In August 1943, WAFS was merged with the Women’s Flying Training Detachment to form the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP).
As a wartime pilot, Cummings was a member of the 6th Ferrying Group, Air Transport Command, Ferrying Division. She flew several types of aircraft that included the P-38, P-51, and P-61 planes. It was during Cummings’ service in World War II that she met and married military pilot Howard Critchell. They would remain married until his death in 2015.
In the years following the end of the war, Cummings returned to USC to teach a curriculum on civilian aviation for military veterans. She remained active as well as a flight instructor. In addition, Cumming competed in plane races. One of her key accomplishments in this regard was winning first prize in the 1957 All Woman Transcontinental Air Race.
In the early 1960s, Cummings worked with the Bates Foundation to establish the Bates Aeronautics Program at Harvey Mudd College in Claremont College. She and her husband jointly oversaw that program until his retirement in 1979. She ran the program on her own until her retirement in 1990. Cummings continued teaching classes on aeronautics for another six years, though. Her students included astronauts Stanley G. Love and George Nelson. Cummings was also a long-time Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) pilot examiner.
In 2000, Cummings was inducted into the National Flight Instructors Hall of Fame. Six years later, she was given FAA’s Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award for her efforts on behalf of plane safety. Cummings was awarded the Nile Gold Medal of the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale the following year for her contributions to aviation training.
Cummings’ interview with NBC Sports about three months before her 100th birthday in 2020 focused a great deal on her status as the one of the few surviving participants in the 1936 Olympics, but it also gave her an opportunity to discuss her continued love of flying. “It’s a treat to be up there with the elements and appreciate it all,” she said during the interview. “It’s you and the air movement and the wind and what you can do with your airplane.” (Upon the death of Canadian swimmer Joan Langdon in 2022, Cummings became the only competitor in the 1936 Olympics who is still alive.)
Photo Credit: Public Domain
For more information on Iris Cummings, please check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iris_Cummings
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