Irene H. Leverton (March 3, 1927 – July 23, 2017) was an American pilot and a member of the Mercury 13 project.
In 1961, Leverton was selected for what is now known as the “Mercury 13” project, a privately funded program that enlisted women to undergo some of the same physical and psychological tests as the “Mercury 7” male astronauts.
Although it was never an official NASA program, members of the First Lady Astronaut Trainees (also known as FLATs) secretly trained to become astronauts for America's first human spaceflight program in the early 1960s.
In the 1980s, Leverton moved to Phoenix and then to Prescott, where she started her business, Aviation Resource Management in 1985.
[2] She graduated from San Jose State College with an AA in 1976 later receiving her flight training from Embry–Riddle Aeronautical University.