From the very first days of aviation, women were there. Katherine Wright, though not a pilot, helped her brothers Orville and Wilbur so much that some called her the “Third Wright Brother.” In 1910, Baroness Raymonde de Laroche of France was the first woman awarded a license to fly. A year later, Harriet Quimby became the first woman to earn a pilot’s license in the United States, and in 1912 flew across the English Channel—another first.
Women Aviators profiles 26 remarkable female pilots who sought out and met challenges both in the sky and on the ground, where some still questioned their abilities. Read about barnstormers like Bessie Coleman and racers like Louise Thaden, who bested Amelia Earhart and Pancho Barnes to win the 1929 Women’s Air Derby. Learn about Jacqueline Cochran who, during World War II, organized and trained the Women Airforce Service Pilots—the WASPs—to serve their country by ferrying airplanes from factories to the front lines and pulling target planes during antiaircraft artillery training. And see how female pilots today continue to achieve and serve while celebrating their love of flight.
OTHER BOOKS IN THE
WOMEN OF ACTION SERIES
Code Name Pauline:
Memoirs of a World War II Special Agent
Double Victory:
How African American Women Broke Race and
Gender Barriers to Help Win World War II
Women Heroes of World War II:
26 Stories of Espionage, Sabotage,
Resistance, and Rescue
Women in Space:
23 Stories of First Flights, Scientific Missions,
and Gravity-Breaking Adventures
Women of the Frontier:
16 Tales of Trailblazing Homesteaders,
Entrepreneurs, and Rabble-Rousers
Copyright © 2013 by Karen Bush Gibson
All rights reserved First edition
Published by Chicago Review Press, Incorporated
814 North Franklin Street
Chicago, Illinois 60610
ISBN 978-1-61374-540-3
Interior design: Sarah Olson
Photo credits:
Alaska Aviation Museum: p. 161; Ames Historical Society: p. 32; Biblioteque Nationale de France: p. 84; Bundesarchiv: p. 125 (Bild 183-B02092/Schwahn/ CC-BY-SA); Chicago History Museum, Chicago Daily News Negatives Collection: p. 75; International Women’s Air & Space Museum: p. 192; Library of Congress: p. 6 (LC-USZ62-129830); 8 (LC-USZ62-107402); 16 (LC-USZ62-15070); 22 (LC-USZ62-45024); 46 (LC-USZ62-20901); 172 (LC-DIG-npcc-17217); NASA: p. 67; National Archives: p. 90 (#535717); National Association of College and University Halls: p. 148; Newark Public Library: p. 142; Polar First/Jennifer Murray: p. 186; Public Domain: p. 118; San Diego Air and Space Museum: p. 25; 55; 61; 72; 79; 136; 155; 179; Texas Women’s University: p. 81; 197; US Air Force: p. 99; 103; 104; 115; Veterans History Project: p. 111
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gibson, Karen Bush.
Women aviators : 26 stories of pioneer flights, daring missions, and record-setting journeys / Karen Bush Gibson. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Audience: 12+
ISBN 978-1-61374-540-3 (cloth)
1. Women air pilots—Biography—Juvenile literature. 2. Women air pilots— History—Juvenile literature. I. Title.
TL539.G53 2013
629.13092'52—dc23
2013007554
Printed in the United States of America
5 4 3 2 1
CONTENTS
Introduction
Part I: Pioneers of Aviation
Baroness de Laroche: “Bird Woman”
Harriet Quimby: First Woman to Fly Across the English Channel
Bessie Coleman: Queen Bess
Neta Snook: The Woman Who Taught Amelia to Fly
Part II: The Golden Age of Flight
Amelia Earhart: The Most Famous Female Aviator in the World
Louise Thaden: Women’s Air Derby Winner
Bobbi Trout: From Service Station to Airfield
Elinor Smith: The Flying Flapper of Freeport
Edna Gardner Whyte: Nothing Could Stop Her from Flying
Katherine Cheung: The First Licensed Asian American Woman Pilot
Beryl Markham: African Bush Pilot Crosses Atlantic
Willa Brown: Integrating the US Armed Forces
Part III: Wartime and Military Flying
Jacqueline Cochran: Women Pilots Can Make a Difference
Violet Cowden: Determined WASP
Valentina Grizodubova: The Soviet Amelia Earhart
Hanna Reitsch: The World’s First Female Test Pilot
Part IV: All Part of the Job
Pancho Barnes: Stunt Flyer Extraordinaire
Lynn Rippelmeyer and Beverly Burns: Airline Pilot Captains
Wally Funk: Air Safety Investigator
Patty Wagstaff: Aerobatic Firefighter
Ingrid Pedersen: Polar Bush Pilot
Part V: Making a Difference
Ruth Nichols: Relief Wings in Times of Disaster
Fay Gillis Wells: Promoting World Friendship through Flying
Jennifer Murray: Helicopter Flying for Charity
Ida Van Smith: Teaching Children to Fly
Jerrie Cobb: Missionary Pilot
Acknowledgments
Notes
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
INTRODUCTION
AT THE TURN OF THE LAST century, two brothers ran a bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio. They had a dream of creating a machine heavier than air that could fly in the sky. Although they tried many experiments, they were often greeted by failure. But every time they failed, they would learn something that brought them closer to success. They built a glider in 1902. Then they created a gasoline engine to put in a flyer. Finally, the Wright Brothers developed a successful airplane that first lifted off from Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on December 17, 1903.
The story of the Wright Brothers’ first flight is a familiar story, but mention Katherine Wright and you’re likely to get a blank look. Yet without Katherine Wright, it’s questionable whether Wilbur and Orville Wright would have succeeded.
As the youngest child and only girl in the Wright family, Katherine was forced to grow up quickly after the death of the mother from tuberculosis. Only fifteen, it became her job to take care of the family. She was particularly close to Wilbur and Orville, who were closer to her age than the two older Wright brothers. She was the only one of the Wright children to finish college.
Katherine arranged for volunteers to help her brothers with the flying machine. She later quit her job to care for Orville, who had been badly hurt in a crash. She managed her brothers’ business affairs and became an officer in their company. Katherine had far better social skills than her brothers, which also helped their airplane receive the right kind of attention. The French were so taken with Katherine that they called her the “third Wright brother” and awarded her and her brothers the Legion of Honor.
As soon as people were convinced that airplanes and flight were possible, they were interested in flying and building airplanes. Aviation took off with the most adventurous souls ready to lead the charge.
To the surprise of many men, there were women who wanted to pilot these new flying machines as well. Some men didn’t think women had either the physical strength or the mental capacity to pilot an airplane. Women had to prove themselves, again and again by earning pilot licenses, setting records, demonstrating aerial moves, and winning races. They had to keep proving themselves, because as Ambassador Clare Boothe Luce once wrote, “Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no one will say, ‘She doesn’t have what it takes
.’ They will say, ‘Women don’t have what it takes.’”
Today, women pilots fly for the airlines, in the military, and in space. They fly air races, command helicopter mercy flights, haul freight, stock high mountain lakes with fish, seed clouds, patrol pipelines, teach others to fly, maintain jet engines, and transport people.
Whether male or female, people become pilots often for the same reasons. First, they love flying, and they love using their talents and being respected for them. They enjoy the feeling of belonging to this strong family called aviation. Perhaps most of all, they love the challenge of being in the air, because there’s nothing else like it.
PART I
Pioneers of Aviation
Great change came with the beginning of the 20th century. The Machine Age led to the creation of factories. People left the uncertainty of rural agricultural life for the many jobs that factories and machinery provided. The cities pulsated with life from the bright lights, radio, and new motion pictures.
The steam engine made it possible to transport people and goods great distances, whether by train or boat. Transportation possibilities blew wide open when Henry Ford opened Ford Motor Company in 1903. Now people had personal transportation that they could take out whenever they wanted. What could be next?
Even with the vast amount of progress in the world, a heavier-than-air flying machine was still a surprise. Flying was something that had to be seen to be believed, so people flocked to airfields and exhibitions to be amazed.
After aviation was introduced, its popularity spread quickly, and soon countries such as France, Great Britain, and Germany began investing in this new and wondrous industry. France in particular began producing great pilots, airplanes, and flight schools, so it’s not surprising that the first licensed woman pilot was French. In fact, five of the first six licensed women pilots were French (number four, Hélène Dutrieu, was from Belgium).
The first 10 women to earn a pilot’s license were the following:
Raymonde de Laroche, France—March 8, 1910
Marthe Niel, France—August 29, 1910
Marie Marvingt, France—November 8, 1910
Hélène Dutrieu, Belgium—November 25, 1910
Jeanne Herveau, France—December 7, 1910
Marie-Louise Driancourt, France—June 15, 1911
Harriet Quimby, USA—August 1, 1911
Lidia Zvereva, Russia—August 10, 1911
Matilde Moisant, USA—August 17, 1911
Hilda Hewlett, England—August 29, 1911
Hélène Dutrieu. Library of Congress: LC-USZ62-129830
Women’s roles in society were changing. No longer content to sit on the sidelines, women wanted to fly. But most men were uneasy about women in planes. Pilots knew that flying a plane had nothing to do with physical strength, but they doubted that women could understand the technology behind aviation. And if there were an emergency, what women could make the calm, rational decisions needed?
But women had exactly what was needed for aviation, and they were determined to join men in the skies. In the early years, getting a pilot’s license wasn’t a requirement. Women such as Blanche Scott and Bessica Raiche were reportedly flying before America’s first woman pilot earned a license, but neither woman stayed with aviation. Raiche became a physician. Scott became disgusted with the industry after seeing the public’s attraction to plane crashes.
The people who pursued aviation, both men and women, were truly remarkable. Most airplanes weren’t very sturdy and didn’t offer much protection in a crash. American women, who weren’t even allowed to vote until 1920, had to work hard just to find someone to teach them how to fly, as most flight schools didn’t accept female students.
Seven years after Wilbur Wright flew 120 feet (36.5 meters) in the flyer, women were demanding the opportunity to fly. The early female aviation pioneers made things possible for the women who followed. They were the first.
BARONESS DE LAROCHE
“Bird Woman”
PEOPLE AT THE AÉRO-CLUB in the Reims-Bétheny region of France were enjoying a lovely day with comfortable temperatures and a light breeze. For centuries, Reims, located northeast of Paris, was the city where French kings had been crowned. It was a city of important people. Most Saturdays brought the wealthy of Reims to the Aéro-Club to see the new airplanes being flown. People were fascinated that a flimsy machine made of wood and canvas could leave the ground—and with a person inside, too.
Suddenly, a woman moved through the crowd in a way that said she was someone important. Whispers of “baroness” floated through the air as she stopped a few times to speak with different people.
All eyes remained on this baroness as she moved toward one of the airplanes. Almost everyone looked confused as she laced a string around the hem of her dress. At the front of the dress, she tried the string as if she were tying a shoe. Someone said aloud, “That’s to keep her dress from flying up.”
Even more surprising was what she did next. She quickly hopped into the seat of the plane. After the gasps subsided, a silence settled over the crowd. Then a mechanic stepped to the front of the plane. Reaching as high as he could, he pulled the propeller down. He repeated this motion a few more times until the engine sputtered to life and the propeller spun on its own.
More than a few faces looked around, expecting someone to stop the woman. No one did. The plane moved forward along the ground, gradually moving faster until it lifted off. The stunning vision prompted wild applause from the audience. The woman made a few turns above the airfield before landing smoothly on the ground.
By that time, everyone knew the name of Baroness de Laroche, the first woman in the world to earn a pilot’s license.
Elise Raymonde Deroche was born in Paris, France, on August 22, 1886. The daughter of a plumber, she was not born a baroness. She was, however, born with a sense of adventure. Her sense of style and commanding appearance led to some success on the stage as an actress. She even changed her name to the more dramatic Raymonde de Laroche.
But life as an actress didn’t meet Elise’s thirst for adventure. The two-wheeled contraption known as the velocipede became popular in France in the late 1860s. It would later become known as the bicycle. Elise taught herself to ride one before moving on to balloons.
Hot-Air Balloons
People first “flew” in the sky by hot-air balloons a little over a hundred years before Elise was born. Another French citizen, Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier, invented the first manned balloon in 1783. Although de Rozier and his friend, the Marquis d’Arlandes, were the first humans in a balloon, a duck actually made the first historic flight when de Rozier put one in the basket for a 15-minute flight.
The balloon was heated with a straw fire, which caused the air in the balloon to expand—and frequently to catch on fire. Like airplanes, however, balloons improved, progressing to a helium and hot-air system. The first balloon flight across the English Channel was in 1785. Balloons appeared in America by 1793. President George Washington witnessed a balloon’s first US flight. Balloons later proved useful during the Civil War and World Wars I and II. In earlier wars, they were used for observation. Leaders could see for miles around, which helped them to develop their strategies. By the time airplanes were used in war, militaries would tether barrage balloons to the ground to limit the visibility of low-flying enemy planes.
Elise loved the feeling of soaring high in the air and looking down upon the earth. She soon became an accomplished balloonist in a time when women balloonists were rare.
Her interest in flying grew when she heard that an American named Wilbur Wright would be arriving in France to demonstrate his new flyer. On August 8, 1908, Wright arrived in Le Mans, a city between Paris and the west coast of France. Only five years earlier, Wilbur and his brother Orville had tested the first flyer in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
A team of horses hauled the Wright flyer onto the center of a racetrack near Le Mans. The audience watched as a couple of men p
ulled down on the propeller. Suddenly the propeller began moving very fast by itself. At the same time, the flyer began moving forward. Wilbur Wright took off and flew around the racetrack. Not only did he dazzle the crowd in the stands, but he also amazed the French officials who had said that a flying machine was an impossibility. After he landed, Wilbur offered rides to any women in the audience interested in experiencing flight. There was no way Elise would miss this opportunity.
After she had flown with Wilbur Wright, ballooning no longer appealed to Elise. Luckily, the French took to aviation quickly. Within a year, Elise was asking Charles Voisin, a French aviator, to teach her to fly. Voisin and his brother, Gabriel, built and flew airplanes. Voisin agreed to teach the 23-year-old actress how to fly.
Their airplane, called the Voisin, was a single-seater aircraft, which meant the teacher had to teach from outside the airplane. For her first lesson, Charles Voisin showed Elise how to move, or taxi, the airplane down the field. The noise of the airplane was loud. He shouted for her to try it but warned her to stay on the ground.
Elise took her first lesson in Châlons, about 147 miles (237 kilometers) east of Paris. First, she taxied the small airplane down the airfield. When she reached the end, a waiting mechanic turned the plane around, and she taxied back. Then Charles turned her around and told her to do it again. This time, Elise opened up the throttle, rising about 15 feet (4.5 meters) in the air. She flew a few hundred yards, made a gentle landing, and came taxiing back to her starting point.
Charles Voisin must have realized that Elise had a talent for piloting, because he kept teaching her, even though she had defied him. She continued to improve, and the two became very close.
Early airplanes weren’t very sturdy, and accidents were common. Elise didn’t allow her first accident in early 1910 to stop her. As she approached her landing at Châlons, a strong gust of wind hit her plane, causing her to slam into some trees, fall about 20 feet (6 meters), and break her collarbone. After her injury healed, she left with the Voisin brothers for Egypt to compete in the Heliopolis air meet. Bad weather kept some aviators from competing, but not Elise. She flew through heavy winds and rains to finish in eighth place.
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