CHAPTER IX—Four Women FlyersMrs. Martin, too, was pleased. She had gained her point, and now had another surprise for the company. “Did it ever occur to you that there are famous flyers who aren’t men? It’s just like you to neglect the women altogether.”“Aw,” said Bob, “we can’t go telling stories about women. We’re sticking to men.”“It seems to me that the women oughtn’t to be neglected,” said his mother. “After all, when we women do things, we like to be recognized.”The Captain broke in, then. “Well, how about some of the women? he asked. Of course, being a woman yourself, you can’t enter our story-telling contest, but you can amuse us from a purely amateur love of getting in your feminine licks.”Mrs. Martin smiled in the dark. “You think that I won’t,” she said. “But I will. I’ve been doing reading of my own, you know.”“Tell away, Mater,” said Bob. “You’re better than any of us.”Mrs. Martin began her story. “There are four women who stand head and shoulders above the rest in the United States,” she said, “when it comes to flying. They are that oddly-assorted group—tall, slender, boyish Amelia Earhart, who’s Amelia Earhart Putnam, now; little Elinor Smith, who doesn’t weigh much over a hundred pounds: medium-sized, gracious and charming Ruth Nichols, who belongs to the Junior League; and short, sturdy, daring Laura Ingalls.“Amelia is probably the first lady of the land, or I should say, first lady of the air in the United States now, since her solo trans-Atlantic flight on May 20, 1932. It was fitting that she should make her flight on the fifth anniversary of Lindbergh’s flight to Europe, because she’s always been called the Lady Lindy. She looks like him, you know—long, lean, blonde, with a shock of unruly curly hair, and a shy, contagious smile. She has even his modest nature, and the ability to win the hearts of everybody with whom she comes in contact.“The solo flight wasn’t Amelia Earhart’s first trip across the ocean by plane. You remember her first flight, when she went as a passenger on the Stultz-Gordon flight in 1928. She’s the first person now who has ever crossed the ocean twice through the air. Amelia is a real pioneer—she must have adventure and excitement in life—that’s why she gave up social service work, and made flying her profession. It wasn’t easy for her to learn to fly—she just had evenings and Sundays to get in her practice flights, but she stuck to it, and finally had a sufficient number of hours in the air to get her pilot’s license. Of course, she is interested in the progress of aviation. Everybody who flies has this interest at heart—but the love of adventure is uppermost in her mind when she makes her record flights.“It was that that sent her across the Atlantic, through storms and sleet and fog, with no thought of turning back, in spite of decided defects in her motor that threatened to land her in the middle of the ocean and send her to certain death.“There wasn’t much publicity before her flight. Since it was going to be for her own satisfaction, she wanted to keep it to herself. She took off quietly from Harbor Grace, Newfoundland. The weather was fairly good, but when she got out a few hours, she met with the same terrifying flying conditions that her solo predecessor, Lindbergh, had. Fog enveloped her plane. She could not see in front of her, or to either side. Ice formed on the wings of her plane, and threatened to break them off. Gradually the temperature rose, and the ice melted. But new dangers threatened. A weld in the exhaust manifold broke, and the manifold vibrated badly; leaks sprang in the reserve gas tanks in the cockpit, and then—the altimeter broke.“Now the altimeter, as I suppose you all know, records the altitude at which the plane is flying. Amelia Earhart had never flown without one, and now she realized the hazards of not knowing how high she was flying through the fog. Sometimes she would drop so low that she came suddenly out of the fog, but so close to the water she could see the white caps on the surface.“The girl realized that she must make a landing as soon as possible, and that was when she reached Culmore, Ireland, a tiny place five miles from Londonderry. She landed in a field, scaring a team of plow horses, who had never before seen a woman landing after a trans-Atlantic flight. She went by automobile to Londonderry, and there received the rousing welcome that was due her.“Europe entertained her royally. She was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross; she was received by the Prince of Wales; she was partied and banqueted. And through it all she kept her poise, and modestly accepted the acclaim that was showered upon her. She was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, but not only that, she had set a new speed record for the North Atlantic Ocean, flying a distance of 2,026 miles in about thirteen and a half hours. She had at the same time broken Ruth Nichols’ long distance record for women, which had been set at 1,977 miles from Oakland, California, to Louisville, Kentucky.“Ruth Nichols has a habit of setting records. She started to fly at about the same time that Amelia Earhart started, and has kept nip and tuck with her, except for the fact that proposed plans of hers to fly the Atlantic have not as yet been carried out. She was graduated from Wellesley College, and was a member of the Junior League, which rates her pretty high in the social scale, but her overwhelming desire for adventure and pioneering, led her, as it led Amelia Earhart, to choose aviation as her profession. Ruth Nichols held the long distance record for women until it was broken by Amelia Earhart. She holds the altitude record for women, though, and broke the altitude record for Diesel engines in 1932, at a height of over 21,000 feet.“Elinor Smith was, in a way of speaking, born in an airplane cockpit. Her father was a pilot; Elinor made her first flight as a passenger at the age of eight; took over the controls at twelve; and made her first solo flight at fifteen. She was so small that her head did not reach over the top of the cockpit, and the other pilots called her ‘the headless pilot.’ It was a funny sight to see a plane land gracefully on a field apparently with no one to guide it. Then out would pop Elinor, a grimy little girl, covered with grease from the motor, and with a cheerful grin on her impish face. It was Elinor, who at seventeen, set the women’s solo endurance record by staying in the air alone for 26 hours and 21 minutes. Elinor should do great things in aviation. She knows her planes inside and out; she’s had the opportunity such as no other woman has had, to learn the technicalities of aviation when she was young that she absorbed them as part of herself. Elinor Smith is one of the most popular women in aviation now.“Laura Ingalls is the stunt flyer of the women. She came out of the middle-west, from Missouri. She took to music and dancing first to express her restless spirit, and then found that it was flying that would express her best. So she went to a government-approved school, and became an expert, daring flyer. She is the holder of the record for loop-the-loops for women, and of the barrel roll record for both men and women. She is interested in the progress of aviation, but gets a great thrill out of merely flying for its own sake.”Mrs. Martin paused. “I guess that gives you an idea,” she said, “what women are doing nowadays.”“Women have always done the great things in aviation,” said Mrs. Gregg. “They stay home and wait while the men are risking their lives. Waiting is harder than doing.“Women haven’t a monopoly on that,” said Bob. “What about Mr. Putnam, who waited at home while his wife flew the ocean?”Everybody laughed. “You’re right, Bob,” said Mrs. Gregg. Then she added, “It’s getting pretty late. How about our going, Hal?”The two of them cut across the garden to their home.
CHAPTER IX—Four Women FlyersMrs. Martin, too, was pleased. She had gained her point, and now had another surprise for the company. “Did it ever occur to you that there are famous flyers who aren’t men? It’s just like you to neglect the women altogether.”“Aw,” said Bob, “we can’t go telling stories about women. We’re sticking to men.”“It seems to me that the women oughtn’t to be neglected,” said his mother. “After all, when we women do things, we like to be recognized.”The Captain broke in, then. “Well, how about some of the women? he asked. Of course, being a woman yourself, you can’t enter our story-telling contest, but you can amuse us from a purely amateur love of getting in your feminine licks.”Mrs. Martin smiled in the dark. “You think that I won’t,” she said. “But I will. I’ve been doing reading of my own, you know.”“Tell away, Mater,” said Bob. “You’re better than any of us.”Mrs. Martin began her story. “There are four women who stand head and shoulders above the rest in the United States,” she said, “when it comes to flying. They are that oddly-assorted group—tall, slender, boyish Amelia Earhart, who’s Amelia Earhart Putnam, now; little Elinor Smith, who doesn’t weigh much over a hundred pounds: medium-sized, gracious and charming Ruth Nichols, who belongs to the Junior League; and short, sturdy, daring Laura Ingalls.“Amelia is probably the first lady of the land, or I should say, first lady of the air in the United States now, since her solo trans-Atlantic flight on May 20, 1932. It was fitting that she should make her flight on the fifth anniversary of Lindbergh’s flight to Europe, because she’s always been called the Lady Lindy. She looks like him, you know—long, lean, blonde, with a shock of unruly curly hair, and a shy, contagious smile. She has even his modest nature, and the ability to win the hearts of everybody with whom she comes in contact.“The solo flight wasn’t Amelia Earhart’s first trip across the ocean by plane. You remember her first flight, when she went as a passenger on the Stultz-Gordon flight in 1928. She’s the first person now who has ever crossed the ocean twice through the air. Amelia is a real pioneer—she must have adventure and excitement in life—that’s why she gave up social service work, and made flying her profession. It wasn’t easy for her to learn to fly—she just had evenings and Sundays to get in her practice flights, but she stuck to it, and finally had a sufficient number of hours in the air to get her pilot’s license. Of course, she is interested in the progress of aviation. Everybody who flies has this interest at heart—but the love of adventure is uppermost in her mind when she makes her record flights.“It was that that sent her across the Atlantic, through storms and sleet and fog, with no thought of turning back, in spite of decided defects in her motor that threatened to land her in the middle of the ocean and send her to certain death.“There wasn’t much publicity before her flight. Since it was going to be for her own satisfaction, she wanted to keep it to herself. She took off quietly from Harbor Grace, Newfoundland. The weather was fairly good, but when she got out a few hours, she met with the same terrifying flying conditions that her solo predecessor, Lindbergh, had. Fog enveloped her plane. She could not see in front of her, or to either side. Ice formed on the wings of her plane, and threatened to break them off. Gradually the temperature rose, and the ice melted. But new dangers threatened. A weld in the exhaust manifold broke, and the manifold vibrated badly; leaks sprang in the reserve gas tanks in the cockpit, and then—the altimeter broke.“Now the altimeter, as I suppose you all know, records the altitude at which the plane is flying. Amelia Earhart had never flown without one, and now she realized the hazards of not knowing how high she was flying through the fog. Sometimes she would drop so low that she came suddenly out of the fog, but so close to the water she could see the white caps on the surface.“The girl realized that she must make a landing as soon as possible, and that was when she reached Culmore, Ireland, a tiny place five miles from Londonderry. She landed in a field, scaring a team of plow horses, who had never before seen a woman landing after a trans-Atlantic flight. She went by automobile to Londonderry, and there received the rousing welcome that was due her.“Europe entertained her royally. She was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross; she was received by the Prince of Wales; she was partied and banqueted. And through it all she kept her poise, and modestly accepted the acclaim that was showered upon her. She was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, but not only that, she had set a new speed record for the North Atlantic Ocean, flying a distance of 2,026 miles in about thirteen and a half hours. She had at the same time broken Ruth Nichols’ long distance record for women, which had been set at 1,977 miles from Oakland, California, to Louisville, Kentucky.“Ruth Nichols has a habit of setting records. She started to fly at about the same time that Amelia Earhart started, and has kept nip and tuck with her, except for the fact that proposed plans of hers to fly the Atlantic have not as yet been carried out. She was graduated from Wellesley College, and was a member of the Junior League, which rates her pretty high in the social scale, but her overwhelming desire for adventure and pioneering, led her, as it led Amelia Earhart, to choose aviation as her profession. Ruth Nichols held the long distance record for women until it was broken by Amelia Earhart. She holds the altitude record for women, though, and broke the altitude record for Diesel engines in 1932, at a height of over 21,000 feet.“Elinor Smith was, in a way of speaking, born in an airplane cockpit. Her father was a pilot; Elinor made her first flight as a passenger at the age of eight; took over the controls at twelve; and made her first solo flight at fifteen. She was so small that her head did not reach over the top of the cockpit, and the other pilots called her ‘the headless pilot.’ It was a funny sight to see a plane land gracefully on a field apparently with no one to guide it. Then out would pop Elinor, a grimy little girl, covered with grease from the motor, and with a cheerful grin on her impish face. It was Elinor, who at seventeen, set the women’s solo endurance record by staying in the air alone for 26 hours and 21 minutes. Elinor should do great things in aviation. She knows her planes inside and out; she’s had the opportunity such as no other woman has had, to learn the technicalities of aviation when she was young that she absorbed them as part of herself. Elinor Smith is one of the most popular women in aviation now.“Laura Ingalls is the stunt flyer of the women. She came out of the middle-west, from Missouri. She took to music and dancing first to express her restless spirit, and then found that it was flying that would express her best. So she went to a government-approved school, and became an expert, daring flyer. She is the holder of the record for loop-the-loops for women, and of the barrel roll record for both men and women. She is interested in the progress of aviation, but gets a great thrill out of merely flying for its own sake.”Mrs. Martin paused. “I guess that gives you an idea,” she said, “what women are doing nowadays.”“Women have always done the great things in aviation,” said Mrs. Gregg. “They stay home and wait while the men are risking their lives. Waiting is harder than doing.“Women haven’t a monopoly on that,” said Bob. “What about Mr. Putnam, who waited at home while his wife flew the ocean?”Everybody laughed. “You’re right, Bob,” said Mrs. Gregg. Then she added, “It’s getting pretty late. How about our going, Hal?”The two of them cut across the garden to their home.
Mrs. Martin, too, was pleased. She had gained her point, and now had another surprise for the company. “Did it ever occur to you that there are famous flyers who aren’t men? It’s just like you to neglect the women altogether.”
“Aw,” said Bob, “we can’t go telling stories about women. We’re sticking to men.”
“It seems to me that the women oughtn’t to be neglected,” said his mother. “After all, when we women do things, we like to be recognized.”
The Captain broke in, then. “Well, how about some of the women? he asked. Of course, being a woman yourself, you can’t enter our story-telling contest, but you can amuse us from a purely amateur love of getting in your feminine licks.”
Mrs. Martin smiled in the dark. “You think that I won’t,” she said. “But I will. I’ve been doing reading of my own, you know.”
“Tell away, Mater,” said Bob. “You’re better than any of us.”
Mrs. Martin began her story. “There are four women who stand head and shoulders above the rest in the United States,” she said, “when it comes to flying. They are that oddly-assorted group—tall, slender, boyish Amelia Earhart, who’s Amelia Earhart Putnam, now; little Elinor Smith, who doesn’t weigh much over a hundred pounds: medium-sized, gracious and charming Ruth Nichols, who belongs to the Junior League; and short, sturdy, daring Laura Ingalls.
“Amelia is probably the first lady of the land, or I should say, first lady of the air in the United States now, since her solo trans-Atlantic flight on May 20, 1932. It was fitting that she should make her flight on the fifth anniversary of Lindbergh’s flight to Europe, because she’s always been called the Lady Lindy. She looks like him, you know—long, lean, blonde, with a shock of unruly curly hair, and a shy, contagious smile. She has even his modest nature, and the ability to win the hearts of everybody with whom she comes in contact.
“The solo flight wasn’t Amelia Earhart’s first trip across the ocean by plane. You remember her first flight, when she went as a passenger on the Stultz-Gordon flight in 1928. She’s the first person now who has ever crossed the ocean twice through the air. Amelia is a real pioneer—she must have adventure and excitement in life—that’s why she gave up social service work, and made flying her profession. It wasn’t easy for her to learn to fly—she just had evenings and Sundays to get in her practice flights, but she stuck to it, and finally had a sufficient number of hours in the air to get her pilot’s license. Of course, she is interested in the progress of aviation. Everybody who flies has this interest at heart—but the love of adventure is uppermost in her mind when she makes her record flights.
“It was that that sent her across the Atlantic, through storms and sleet and fog, with no thought of turning back, in spite of decided defects in her motor that threatened to land her in the middle of the ocean and send her to certain death.
“There wasn’t much publicity before her flight. Since it was going to be for her own satisfaction, she wanted to keep it to herself. She took off quietly from Harbor Grace, Newfoundland. The weather was fairly good, but when she got out a few hours, she met with the same terrifying flying conditions that her solo predecessor, Lindbergh, had. Fog enveloped her plane. She could not see in front of her, or to either side. Ice formed on the wings of her plane, and threatened to break them off. Gradually the temperature rose, and the ice melted. But new dangers threatened. A weld in the exhaust manifold broke, and the manifold vibrated badly; leaks sprang in the reserve gas tanks in the cockpit, and then—the altimeter broke.
“Now the altimeter, as I suppose you all know, records the altitude at which the plane is flying. Amelia Earhart had never flown without one, and now she realized the hazards of not knowing how high she was flying through the fog. Sometimes she would drop so low that she came suddenly out of the fog, but so close to the water she could see the white caps on the surface.
“The girl realized that she must make a landing as soon as possible, and that was when she reached Culmore, Ireland, a tiny place five miles from Londonderry. She landed in a field, scaring a team of plow horses, who had never before seen a woman landing after a trans-Atlantic flight. She went by automobile to Londonderry, and there received the rousing welcome that was due her.
“Europe entertained her royally. She was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross; she was received by the Prince of Wales; she was partied and banqueted. And through it all she kept her poise, and modestly accepted the acclaim that was showered upon her. She was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic, but not only that, she had set a new speed record for the North Atlantic Ocean, flying a distance of 2,026 miles in about thirteen and a half hours. She had at the same time broken Ruth Nichols’ long distance record for women, which had been set at 1,977 miles from Oakland, California, to Louisville, Kentucky.
“Ruth Nichols has a habit of setting records. She started to fly at about the same time that Amelia Earhart started, and has kept nip and tuck with her, except for the fact that proposed plans of hers to fly the Atlantic have not as yet been carried out. She was graduated from Wellesley College, and was a member of the Junior League, which rates her pretty high in the social scale, but her overwhelming desire for adventure and pioneering, led her, as it led Amelia Earhart, to choose aviation as her profession. Ruth Nichols held the long distance record for women until it was broken by Amelia Earhart. She holds the altitude record for women, though, and broke the altitude record for Diesel engines in 1932, at a height of over 21,000 feet.
“Elinor Smith was, in a way of speaking, born in an airplane cockpit. Her father was a pilot; Elinor made her first flight as a passenger at the age of eight; took over the controls at twelve; and made her first solo flight at fifteen. She was so small that her head did not reach over the top of the cockpit, and the other pilots called her ‘the headless pilot.’ It was a funny sight to see a plane land gracefully on a field apparently with no one to guide it. Then out would pop Elinor, a grimy little girl, covered with grease from the motor, and with a cheerful grin on her impish face. It was Elinor, who at seventeen, set the women’s solo endurance record by staying in the air alone for 26 hours and 21 minutes. Elinor should do great things in aviation. She knows her planes inside and out; she’s had the opportunity such as no other woman has had, to learn the technicalities of aviation when she was young that she absorbed them as part of herself. Elinor Smith is one of the most popular women in aviation now.
“Laura Ingalls is the stunt flyer of the women. She came out of the middle-west, from Missouri. She took to music and dancing first to express her restless spirit, and then found that it was flying that would express her best. So she went to a government-approved school, and became an expert, daring flyer. She is the holder of the record for loop-the-loops for women, and of the barrel roll record for both men and women. She is interested in the progress of aviation, but gets a great thrill out of merely flying for its own sake.”
Mrs. Martin paused. “I guess that gives you an idea,” she said, “what women are doing nowadays.”
“Women have always done the great things in aviation,” said Mrs. Gregg. “They stay home and wait while the men are risking their lives. Waiting is harder than doing.
“Women haven’t a monopoly on that,” said Bob. “What about Mr. Putnam, who waited at home while his wife flew the ocean?”
Everybody laughed. “You’re right, Bob,” said Mrs. Gregg. Then she added, “It’s getting pretty late. How about our going, Hal?”
The two of them cut across the garden to their home.