Where the Sky Begins

Afterword #4

Considered one of the most skilled pilots in the 1929 race

Amelia Earhart:

First woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean in 1932

Made the first solo nonstop flight by a woman across the United States

First president of the Ninety-Nines organization for women pilots

Disappeared in 1937 while attempting to circumnavigate the globe

Louise Thaden:

Winner, 1929 National Women’s Air Derby

First woman to compete in the Bendix Transcontinental Air Race against men in 1936 and won the race

Won aviation’s highest honor for women, the Harmon Trophy, honoring the most outstanding accomplishment in aviation globally that year, in 1936

Won the prestigious Bendix Trophy, honoring the most outstanding accomplishment in American aviation, in 1936, becoming the first woman to win this honor

Held women’s altitude, endurance, and speed records simultaneously

Set a refueling endurance record of 196 hours with Frances Marsalis

Director of the Women’s Division of the Penn School of Aeronautics

National Secretary of the National Aeronautics Association

Worked for the Bureau of Air Commerce to promote aviation and mark rooftops for aircraft navigation

Served various official roles in aviation organizations, including the first vice president of the Ninety-Nines

Phoebe Omlie:

Wing walker, hung below the wing by her teeth, danced the Charleston on the top wing, and parachuted off airplanes

Set world parachuting altitude record for women

Movie stunt pilot, flew for The Perils of Pauline

First licensed female airplane mechanic

First licensed female transport pilot

First woman to compete in the Edsel Ford Air Tour

First woman to cross the Rocky Mountains in a light aircraft

First woman appointed to a federal aviation position as Special Adviser for Air Intelligence to the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics by President Roosevelt

Established sixty-six flight schools in forty-six states during World War II, including the school that trained the Tuskegee Airmen

Established the first school to train women instructor pilots for World War II

Bobbi Trout:

Set multiple endurance records, including a solo endurance record for women at 17 hours, 24 minutes, as well as altitude records

Continued flying well into her later years

Last surviving pilot from the 1929 National Women’s Air Derby, passing away in 2003 at the age of ninety-seven

Ruth Nichols:

Held women’s world speed, altitude, and distance records in 1931 and broke the world altitude record in a diesel aircraft in 1932

Attempted a solo crossing of the Atlantic but crashed in New Brunswick, Canada

Test pilot for Fairchild and other aviation companies

Broke Charles Lindbergh’s speed record for a cross-country flight in 1930

First woman to become a pilot at a commercial passenger airline in 1932

Flew for the Civil Air Patrol during and after World War II, attaining the rank of lieutenant colonel

In 1958 at age fifty-seven, broke the women’s world speed and altitude record in a TF-102A Delta Dagger, reaching 1,000 miles per hour (1600 km/h) and an altitude of 51,000 feet (15,545 m)

Blanche Noyes:

Partnered with Louise Thaden as Thaden’s copilot to win the 1936 Bendix Race

Demonstration pilot for Standard Oil

Member of the Women’s Advisory Committee on Aeronautics

Worked for the Air Mail Service

Collaborated on the Bureau of Air Commerce’s air-marking program.

Ruth Elder:

Beauty queen and silent-film actress

Attempted to be the first woman to fly across the Atlantic but crashed in the ocean 360 miles from the Azores Islands

Appeared as an actress in Hollywood films, including Moran of the Marines and The Winged Horseman

Worked as Howard Hughes’s executive secretary

Thea Rasche:

Known as the “Flying Fr?ulein”

German aerobatic pilot who competed internationally

First German woman to earn a seaplane pilot’s license

First woman to join the Quiet Birdmen, a secretive club for prominent pilots, traditionally male-only

A German nurse during World War II who moved to the US after the war

Jessie “Chubbie” Keith-Miller:

Early female Australian pilot

First woman to fly from England to Australia (with British Royal Air Force officer Bill Lancaster)

Vera Dawn Walker:

Known as the “pint-sized test pilot” (she weighed only ninety-four pounds)

Sponsored by Howard Hughes

Eleventh woman to obtain a transport pilot’s license

Demonstrated airplanes for the MacClatchie Manufacturing Company

In 1931, contracted tuberculosis and never flew again

Gladys O’Donnell:

Vice president of the Ninety-Nines, 1933–1935

1937 Republican National Program Committee member

President of the National Federation of Republican Women

Neva Paris:

Represented Curtiss Flying School

Owned and managed an orange grove in Anaheim, California

Died in an airplane crash in 1930 in Georgia at age thirty-six after appearing to become violently ill and possibly passing out in flight

Mary Haizlip:

Second woman in the United States to hold a commercial pilot’s license

Held women’s world speed record for seven years

Test pilot for Spartan Aircraft, American Eagle, and Buhl Aircraft

Opal Kunz:

Chief organizer of the Betsy Ross Air Corps, a paramilitary arm of the Civil Air Patrol

In 1930, at the Philadelphia American Legion Benefit Air Meet, became the first woman to race men in open competition and won the race

Taught aviation at Arkansas State College

Flight instructor for navy cadets in World War II

Inspector for the Aerojet Corporation

Mary Von Mach:

First licensed female pilot in Michigan

First woman to own an airplane in Michigan

First woman in Michigan to receive an air transport license

Final inspector of B-24s for Pratt & Whitney in World War II

Edith Foltz:

First woman in Oregon and fifth in the United States to obtain an air transport license

Barnstorming pilot

Flew for West Coast Air Transport

During the 1929 National Women’s Air Derby, her landing gear was damaged in Midland, Texas, and suspected sabotage was reported in newspapers at the time

Cofounded the Portland chapter of the Women’s National Aeronautic Association

First woman chairperson of the National Aeronautics Association

Flight instructor in World War II

Recruited by Jacqueline Cochran to join the Air Transport Auxiliary of Britain’s Royal Air Force, where she rose to the rank of first officer and served in Europe for three and a half years

After World War II, became the primary flight instructor at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, teaching instrument flying using Link Trainer flight simulators and continuing to teach at the naval base until the year of her death, 1956

Claire Fahy:

Planned a flight around the world with her husband after dropping out of the 1929 National Women’s Air Derby

Her husband, test pilot Herbert J. “Hub” Fahy, was killed in an airplane crash in May 1930

In December 1930, she crashed her plane when her motor stalled on takeoff, dying a few days later from her injuries at the age of thirty

Margaret Perry:

Well-known Beverly Hills socialite and horsewoman

Second president of the Ninety-Nines, from 1933 to 1935

Opened and operated the Culver City Airport near Los Angeles

Formed the Amelia Earhart Memorial Scholarship Fund and was a trustee until her death in 1951