| Park Kyung-won | |
| Birth Date: | 24 June 1901 |
| Birth Place: | Daegu, Gyeongsang-do, Korean Empire (now South Korea) |
| Death Place: | Hakone, Kanagawa, Empire of Japan (now Japan) |
| Occupation: | Aviator |
| Hanja: | 朴敬元 |
| Hangul: | 박경원 |
| Rr: | Bak Gyeong-won |
| Mr: | Pak Kyŏng'wŏn |
Park Kyung-won (; 24 June 1901 – 7 August 1933) was the first female Korean civilian aviator.
Park is not the first female Korean pilot, however. That title is generally given to Kwon Ki-ok, who was trained by the Republic of China Air Force.[1]
Park is the subject of the controversial 2005 South Korean film Blue Swallow, in which she was portrayed by actress Jang Jin-young.[2]
Park was born in Daegu, Gyeongsang-do.[1] From 1912 to 1916, she attended Daegu's Myeongsin Women's School, a Presbyterian missionary school operated by Americans; a year after her graduation, on 13 September 1917, she departed her hometown for Japan. Upon her arrival in Japan, she initially settled in Yokohama's Minamiyoshida-machi, where she enrolled in the Kasahara Industrial Training School, spending two and a half years. From 1919, she began attending a Korean church in Yokohama, and later converted to Christianity. In February 1920, she returned to Daegu to enter a nursing school there; though her true aim was to become a pilot, she needed to earn money for the tuition fees first.[1] [3]
In January 1925, Park returned to Japan, where she finally enrolled in an aviation school in Kamata (present-day Ōta, Tokyo). She had initially hoped to attend the same flight school as An Chang-nam, the first Korean male pilot, but it had burned down in 1923. She graduated and took the test for her third-class pilot's licence on 25 January 1927; she obtained the licence three days later. On 30 July of the following year, she obtained her second-class pilot's licence.[1] [3]
On 4 May 1933, Park was chosen to fly on a new route between Japan and Manchukuo. She flew to Seoul on 19 May to meet with government officials there. At 10:35 AM on 7 August 1933, she took off in her Salmson 2 A2 biplane, named the Blue Swallow,[4] from Tokyo's Haneda Airport on one such flight to Manchuria; she crashed 42 minutes later near Hakone, Kanagawa and died.[3] [5]