Helen Richey (November 21, 1909 – January 7, 1947) was a pioneering female aviator and the first woman to be hired as a pilot by a commercial airline in the United States.

"[2][3] Three years later, Richey set a women's international light plane record of 100 kilometers traveled in 55 minutes.

As a co-pilot in the Bendix race that same year with Amelia Earhart, she secured the women's light plane altitude record.

[7] In December 1933 Richey partnered with another female pilot, Frances Marsalis, to set an endurance record by staying airborne for nearly 10 days over Miami, Florida, with midair refueling.

[7][8] The refuelling was achieved by opening the central hatch, grabbing a dangling hose out of a Curtiss Robin and shoving it into the gas tank, which Richey likened to "wrestling with a cobra in a hurricane".

[15][16] In May 1936, Helen Richey, flying a light plane,[17] set an international altitude record for aircraft weighing under 200 kilograms (440 lb).

"[24][25] On September 11, 1943, Richey and professional golfer Helen Detweiler were awarded their Army Air Force wings at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas during a ceremony presided over by Jacqueline Cochran.

[27] In 1944, Richey was a member of the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASPs) and was stationed at the New Castle Army Air Base in Delaware, where she was responsible for ferrying military planes to and from Canada.