Evelyn Johnson, a flight instructor...

...who piloted an airplane for more hours than anyone else alive, died at age 102.

Born just six years after the Wright brothers' first flight in 1903, Ms. Johnson flew over 57,000 hours, or more than six and a half years. Put another way, she flew five and a half million miles, equal to 23 trips to the moon.

(The record holder, Ed Long, flew over 64,000 hours, most of that under 200 feet surveying power lines in a Piper Cub. Legend has it that one of Mr. Long's last statements was "Don't let that woman beat me.")

To get to her first flight lesson, Ms. Johnson, nicknamed Mama Bird:

...had to take a train and a bus, walk a quarter-mile and then row to the airport, to which a bridge had not yet been built. 

Despite glaucoma and the loss of a leg, Ms. Johnson managed a local airport at age 100. She last flew a plane when she was 95.

Each time she went up in a plane -- her last flight was as a passenger in 2009 -- she said she saw something new and beautiful.