Jessica Cox: The Pilot Who Has No Arms

Jessica Cox was born 1983 in Sierra Vista, Arizona, United States without arms, and today, she flies airplanes, drives cars and lives a normal life using her feet the way others use their hands. Jessica is the world's first licensed armless pilot, as well as the first armless black-belt in the American Taekwondo Association (ATA). She is also an inspirational speaker who travels around the world using her own life as an example of what you can achieve if you want it badly enough.

As a child, Jessica studied dance in her home town. At the age of 14, Jessica earned her first black belt in the International Taekwondo Federation. She attended the University of Arizona where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Psychology. During college, Jessica found a club of the American Taekwondo Association and resumed training in the sport. The instructors created a curriculum that would be accessible to any future armless students. Jessica then became the first armless person to earn a black belt in the ATA (she now has two black belts in Taekwondo). Her most famous accomplishment has been learning how to fly. After three years of training, she earned her pilot's license on October 10, 2008. She holds the Guinness World Record for being the first person certified to fly an airplane with only their feet. She is able to type on a keyboard (25 words per minute), to pump her own gas, insert and remove her contact lenses, apply make-up using only her feet and she is also a certified SCUBA diver. In 2012, she married Patrick, her former Taekwondo instructor. During their wedding, rather than presenting Jessica with a ring, her husband wrapped an anklet around her left ankle and during the cutting of the wedding cake, she used her feet.

Jessica, whose slogan is ‘motivating people to think outside the shoe’, believes in combining creativity, desire, persistence and fearlessness and that with them, nothing is impossible. She is such a huge inspiration to me. And again, she has demonstrated to me that none of us has any excuse to be less than what we can be in life. According to one of her admirers, she proves to everyone that everything is possible and that you can do what you dream of. I hope that after reading this story, you will be inspired to surmount every challenge and overcome any difficulty on your way in life. I end this piece with the following questions on Jessica’s website: Are you letting fears stand in the way of your opportunities? Is it easier to come up with an excuse than a creative solution to a challenge? What handicaps do you and others harbor that you do not need? How soon should you give up when confronted with a difficult challenge?