# Who is the greatest aviator of all time?

> Aviation's short history is crowded with people who flew first, flew farthest or flew fastest. Rank the pilots whose names outlived their records.

*By YPB Team · Published August 31, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/who-is-the-greatest-aviator-of-all-time*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Orville Wright** — score 1000/1000
   Made the first controlled powered flight at Kitty Hawk on 17 December 1903, a hop of 12 seconds.
2. **Jacqueline Cochran** — score 794/1000
   Held more speed, altitude and distance records than any pilot of her era and was the first woman to fly faster than sound.
3. **Charles Lindbergh** — score 577/1000
   Crossed the Atlantic alone and nonstop in 1927 in the Spirit of St. Louis, and became the most famous man alive.
4. **Amelia Earhart** — score 333/1000
   First woman to fly the Atlantic solo, in 1932, and the first person to fly solo from Honolulu to Oakland.
5. **Bessie Coleman** — score 333/1000
   Denied a licence in the United States, she qualified in France in 1921 as the first Black woman to hold a pilot's licence.
6. **Wilbur Wright** — score 227/1000
   The elder brother, who solved control before power and flew the longest of the four Kitty Hawk flights.
7. **Chuck Yeager** — score 227/1000
   Broke the sound barrier in the Bell X-1 on 14 October 1947 with two ribs freshly cracked.
8. **Yuri Gagarin** — score 227/1000
   A fighter pilot before he became the first human in space in 1961.
9. **Neil Armstrong** — score 227/1000
   A test pilot who flew the X-15 to the edge of the atmosphere long before he walked on the Moon.

Tags: usa, all-time, aviation, pilots