Portraits of Black women in aviation: Lt. j.g. Madeline Swegle is the first Black female fighter pilot in the US Navy. Bessie Coleman was the first African-American woman and first Native-American to hold a pilot license, and the first Black person to earn an international pilot's license. Colonel Merryl Tengesdal is the first and only African-American woman to fly the United States Air Force's U-2S spy plane.