Before Jet Came Jenny

A quarter century before Jet Dream and her Stunt-Girl Counterspies were tearing up the skies, they belonged to Flyin' Jenny. Jenny was created by Russell Keaton and started out as a newspaper strip in October of 1939. The following year she jumped to comic books in the premiere issue of Reg'lar Fellers Heroic Comics. with an ongoing 4 page feature before getting her own short-lived title.

An odd little tidbit: Jenny's surname was Dare, a name with a rich comicbook history. Originally Keaton planned to name her Virginia Dare after his wife, but changed Virginia to Jenny after realizing the name's historic connotations. (Virginia Dare was the first English child born here in the Colonies)

Here are the first 5 issues worth of Jenny Dare's adventures in Reg'lar Fellers:

Is it just me, or is Ranxerox captaining that ship?

The Flyin' Jenny strips that i have are from the following year, so i can't be certain but this seems to be the introduction of Jenny's Style Show. For better or worse, by 1941 it was a staple feature of the comic strip.
Sadly, Russell Keaton died young at only 35 years old in 1945. Losing her creator combined with the changes brought about by the end of the war led to Jenny fading away from the comic scene.

Flyin' Jenny took to the air way back in 1939. You'd be justified in thinking that she was the first female aviator hero in comics.

But you'd be wrong - by a dozen years...

pages by Russell Keaton for Reg'lar Fellers Heroic Comics #s 1-4 (1940)