In the mid-1930s a young woman from a prominent Philadelphia family found a job in Boston selling airplanes on commission. Her long list of customers included Joseph Kennedy, Sr., who, according to one account, was more concerned in finding a wife for a future president, his son, than in buying a plane. The young saleswoman, Nancy Harkness, apparently wasn't interested. She had her own marriage in mind, one that would in its own way gain her local celebrity. In 1936, she married an Air Corps Reserves officer called Robert Love. The union was splashed all over the Boston papers -- "BEAUTIFUL AVIATRIX WEDS DASHING AIR CORPS OFFICER" read one headline; "THE ROMANCE OF THE GLAMOROUS YOUNG SOCIETY COUPLE MEETS THE ROMANCE OF THE SKY" announced another. The marriage did more than give Nancy public attention. It placed the already extremely capable pilot in an excellent position to lobby for a women's flying squadron during the war.

Love was the daughter of a wealthy physician; she had been flying since she was a teenager. Though she went to all the right schools, including Milton Academy in Massachusetts and Vassar in New York, she was restless and adventurous. In college she earned extra money taking students for rides in a plane she rented from a nearby airport. Once she flew so low over campus, almost brushing the treetops, that someone was able to read the plane's tail number. University officials were not amused. She was suspended from school for two weeks and forbidden to fly for the rest of the semester.

After their marriage, the Loves built a successful Boston-based aviation company for which Nancy was a pilot. She also flew for the Bureau of Air Commerce: In one project she tested three-wheeled landing gear, which subsequently became standard on most planes. In another, she helped mark water towers with town names as a navigational aid for pilots.

Love was not a headline-grabbing pilot like the famous aviator Jackie Cochran, but her qualifications as a pilot meant that her first proposal for a women's flying squadron, though rejected, was taken seriously. In May 1940, just months after the Second World War broke out in Europe, Love wrote to Lieutenant Colonel Robert Olds who was setting up a Ferrying Command within the Army Air Forces. She said she had found 49 excellent women pilots who could help transport planes from factories to bases. "I really think this list is up to handling pretty complicated stuff," she argued. "Most of them have in the neighborhood of a thousand hours or more -- mostly more, and have flown a great many types of ship." General Olds was intrigued. He took the suggestion to General Hap Arnold, who turned it down, though not permanently.

According to one account, a chance comment her husband made proved a decisive factor in resurrecting Nancy's proposal. In the spring of 1942, Robert was called for military duty in Washington as the deputy chief of staff of the American Ferry Command. Nancy got an administrative job in Baltimore, to which she commuted by plane. One day Robert happened to mention his wife's daily flight to work to Colonel William Tunner, who was heading up the domestic wing of the ferrying division. Tunner, who at that very moment was scouring the country for skilled pilots, was amazed. He wanted to know if there were many other women who could fly. Within days, he met with Nancy and asked her to write a proposal for a women's ferrying division. Within months, the 28-year-old Love had become the director of the Women's Auxiliary Ferry Squadron, or WAFS, with 25 experienced female pilots under her command.

From the very beginning, Love and the WAFS had problems getting the media to take them seriously. One of the first newsreel stories showed Love welcoming some of her new recruits. The announcer summed up the story saying: "What will they think of next." "Life" magazine proclaimed that Love was one of the six American women in the public eye who had beautiful legs. The War Department tried to tone down the publicity, urging the press to treat the women pilots with "diplomacy and delicacy." And Love tried to ensure that her pilots did nothing to attract unwarranted attention. She knew that one misstep could turn the tide of public opinion against her whole team. "If the WAFS are to succeed, our personal conduct must be above reproach," she told her recruits. "There cannot be the faintest breath of scandal. Among other things, this means you may not accept rides with male pilots." She went on to explain why. "If a male pilot and a WAF were seen leaving a plane together there would be suspicions that they were playing house in government property."

The following summer, Love was asked to fly an important mission which, if it had proceeded as planned, would have greatly expanded the scope of her operation. The British had asked for the delivery of 100 B-17s in order to fly deep into Europe. Colonel Tunner suggested to Love that she become the first woman pilot to fly a military plane on an intercontinental flight. The day Love and her co-pilot were to set off, General Hap Arnold got word of the mission. Fearing a tremendous backlash if a woman pilot was shot down by enemy fire, he moved immediately to ground the women. As Love started the engine on the B-17 and was about to taxi down the runway, an officer came screeching down the runway in a jeep with an urgent telegram in hand. The message was from Arnold. It read: "CEASE AND DESIST, NO WAFS WILL FLY OUTSIDE THE CONTIGUOUS U.S." Love and her co-pilot shut down their engines. The photographer who was on hand to record the takeoff, took a still of the two women anyway. The picture captures the disappointment of two frustrated aviators trying desperately to smile.

In the summer of 1943 Love's squadron merged with a women's pilot training program that had been set up under Cochran's leadership the previous fall. Cochran was named director of the combined units, which was known as the Women's Airforce Service Pilots, or WASP. Love was put in charge of all WASP ferrying operations. Under her command, female pilots flew almost every military aircraft then in the air. In some instances, they were even asked to demonstrate to the men that a particular plane was safe. According to Colonel Tunner, the women were instrumental in rescuing the tarnished reputation of the high-speed P-39 pursuit plane, which the men had named the "flying coffin." The men, Tunner claimed, were having so many accidents in the ship because they weren't flying it "according to specifications." He ordered a group of female pilots to begin deliveries of the P-39. "They had no trouble, none at all," Tunner noted years later. "And I had no more complaints from the men."

After the war, Love received an Air Medal for her service to the country. She then retreated from public life and raised three daughters. The family moved to Martha's Vineyard, where they frequently hosted WASPs who had been under Love's command. Love died of cancer at the age of 62 in 1976, so she didn't live to see the WASPs being accorded military recognition three years later. But right up to her death, the women she had commanded remained some of the most important people in her life. Among the things she left behind was a box she had kept for more than 30 years. Inside was a handwritten list she had compiled in 1940 of women pilots. It also contained clippings and photographs of each of the women who had died under her command.

Nancy Harkness Love

L'année 1964 fut riche en vols solitaires autour du monde avec deux vols qui resteront célèbres dans l'histoire des vols autour du monde. Bien que l'Honorable Mrs. Bruce ait effectué un vol solitaire en 1930, vol interrompu par deux traversées en paquebot, les deux vols de 1964, vols entièrement effectués par la voie des airs par deux femmes pilotes furent ceux de Geraldine Mock et Joan Merriam Smith. Mrs. Bruce n'avait que 40 heures de vol quand elle débuta son tour du monde. Son avion, un Blackburn Bluebird, avec des ailes repliables n'avait pas la portée necessaire pour traverser les Océans Pacifique et Atlantique. Elle les traversa à bord de paquebots. Une autre femme pilote qui tenta aussi le tour du monde mais ne réussit pas est la célèbre Amelia Earhart-Putman qui disparu en mer en 1937. Partie de Lae en Nouvelle Angleterre au Nord de la Nouvelle Guinée pour l'île Howland au milieu du Pacifique, elle disparu en mer à bord de son Lockheed Electra en compagnie de son navigateur Fred Noonan. Sa disparition mystérieuse, et aujourd'hui encore inexpliquée, donna lieu à toutes sortes de spéculations : n'ayant pas trouvé l'île Howland et ayant épuisé son carburant, elle aurait péri dans un amérissage forcé ou aurait-elle été capturée par les Japonais qui étendaient leur influence dans cette partie du Pacifique. Le mystère entourant sa disparition a certainement contribué à sa célébrité.

Geraldine (Jerrie) Fredritz épousa Russel Mock en 1945. Ils eurent trois enfants. Après plusieurs emplois, elle dirigeait l'aéroport de Colombus dans l'Ohio. Elle apprit à voler en 1956 et obtint son brevet de pilote en 1958. Un jour alors qu'elle se plaignait à son mari ne n'avoir rien à faire d'intéressant et d'avoir envie d'aller « quelque part », il lui suggéra dans une boutade de faire le tour du monde en avion. Elle le prit au mot et commença à organiser le vol. Elle découvrit que seuls des hommes avaient fait le tour du monde, qu'aucune femme n'avait fait le vol entièrement par la voie des airs et qu'aucun record féminin n'était enregistré. Elle n'avait alors que 500 heures de vol. Pour un tel vol, il lui fallait la qualification de vol aux instruments (IFR). Quand elle fut prête, elle avait alors près de 750 heures de vol.

Elle utilisa le Cessna 180, enregistré N1538C qu'elle nomma qu'ils possédaient en copropriété avec un ami. Il fut baptisé« The Spitrit of Colombus » mais elle l'appelait affectueusement « Charlie », C'était un avion à aile haute et train conventionnel (roulette de queue). Des réservoirs supplémentaires furent ajoutés dans la cabine portant la capacité totale 670 litres, lui donnant une autonomie de 25 heures et une distance franchissable de plus de 4500 Egalement une radio HF fut installée. Pendant ses préparatifs elle eut vent de ceux d'une autre femme, Joan Smith, qui elle aussi avait l'intention de faire le tour du monde, retraçant le vol de Amelia Earhart. Mock avait déclaré à la National Aeronautic Association (le représentant aux USA de la FAI) son intention d'établir des records durant son vol. Elle avait fait cela très tôt dans ses préparatifs et de ce fait avait battu de vitesse Smith à se faire enregistrer. Smith ne pouvait donc pas établir de record officiel autour du monde. Mais elle espérait néanmoins faire son tour du monde en moins de temps que Mock. Les deux femmes insistaient qu'elles ne faisaient pas la course, qu'elles n'étaient pas en concurrence. Mais en fait tout au long du vol Russell Mock exhortait sa femme à aller plus vite pour ne pas être rattrapée par Smith. Elle envoyait régulièrement ses impressions de voyage qui étaient publiées dans le journal de Colombus. Les pilotes des records de vitesse autour du monde sont tenus de donner un compte rendu du vol. Celui-ci est dans les archives de la FAI à Lausanne. En voici des extraits.

Jerrie Mock partit de Colombus le 19 Mars 1964. Sa radio HF ne fonctionnait pas. Elle atterrit aux Bermudes dans un fort vent de travers. Elle y resta jusqu'au 25. La radio HF fut réparée, un fil avait été déconnecté. son mari lui annonça que Smith, qui était partie deux jours avant elle, était en panne à Suriname, ayant à réparer une fuite à un de ses réservoirs.

Le 26 Mars elle part de nuit pour Santa Maria aux Acores. Atterrissage aux instruments. Le 28 Mars, elle fit route vers Casablanca. Elle eu à lutter contre le givrage. Elle passa le 29 Mars à visiter Casablanca avec des amis américains. Russell lui annonçe que Smith a quitté l'Amérique et se dirige maintenant vers l'Afrique. Jerrie a des nnuis avec les freins et la roulette de queue.

Le 30, elle atterrit à Bône en Algérie. Son mari l'exhorte à aller plus vite. Le 31 elle est à Tripoli alors qu'elle aurait voulu aller jusqu'au Caire. On lui annonce que Smith est bloquée à Belem par du mauvais temps. Elle repart le premier avril mais se trompe d'aéroport et atterrit sur l'aérodrome militaire « secret » de Inchas ou Inshaas près du Caire. Après plusieurs heures d'explications, elle fut autorisée à regagner l'aéroport du Caire.

J'ignorais tout de Jerrie Mock, de son tour du monde et son infortune au Caire quand j'y atterrissi en 1996, dans la poussière de sable rendant la visibilité difficile. Je me serais probablement fait plus de souci pour trouver l'aéroport si j'avais connu son histoire et la présence d'un aérodrome militaire tout près.

Le lendemain, Jerrie, visita les Pyramides et monta en chameau. Elle repartit du Caire le 3 avril pour Dhahran. Puis le 4 pour Karachi au Pakistan. Pendant ce temps Smith arrive à Dakar.
Le 5, elle arrive à Delhi en Inde. Son mari aurait voulu qu'elle vole directement jusqu'à Calcutta, mais elle préféra s'arrêter à Delhi. Elle était fatiguée. Elle arrive à Calcutta le 6 et à Bangkok en Thaïlande le 7.

Le 8 avril, elle traverse la Mer de Chine en route vers Manille aux Philippines. C'est là qu'elle pu enfin faire réparer ses freins. Son mari continue à la pousser à faire de la route alors qu'elle a besoin de repos.
Le 11, elle repart pour l'île de Guam et le 12 pour l'île de Wake. Ces deux îles sont en territoire américain.

Le 13 elle repart pour Honolulu et elle croise la ligne de changement de date. Elle arrive donc à Honolulu le 13…Vint enfin la longue étape de Honolulu à Oackland en Californie d'une distance de plus 4500 km. Elle l'a parcouru en dix huit heures.. Son mari l'attendait à Oackland. Il avait perdu neuf kilos depuis le départ de Jerrie. Elle fut reçue en grande pompe par une nuée de journalistes.

Elle arriva enfin le 17 avril à Colombus d'où elle était partie après être passé par Tucson, El Paso au Texas et Bowling Green dans le Kentucky.

Elle fut reçue et fêtée. Le Président Lyndon Johnson lui décerna la Médaille d'Or de la FAA. Elle reçut une longue liste de médailles et de décorations y compris la Médaille d'Argent Louis Blériot présentée par la FAI. De nombreuses villes la nommèrent citoyenne d'honneur. Elle fut interviewée par tous les journaux, toutes les stations de radio et de télévision du monde. Quand on lui demandait : « Pourquoi avez-vous fait cela ? », elle répondait souvent : « Je l'ai fait pour donner confiance au petit pilote, qui est laissé en arrière dans le courant des jets et de l'age spacial. »

Elle avait parcouru 36 700 km en 30 jours et en 158 heures de vol.

Jerrie Mock avait établit deux records officiels reconnus par la FAI :
· Record féminin autour du monde.
· Record de vitesse autour du monde dans la classe C1-c.

Elle avait aussi établi cinq records « non officiels » :
· Première femme femme à survoler l'Atlantique Nord des USA vers l'Afrique
· Première femme à survoler les deux Océans
· Première femme à survoler le Pacifique d'Ouest en Est
· Première femme à survoler le Pacifique en monomoteur
· Première femme à faire entièrement le tour du monde en solitaire

Geraldine Mock ne devait plus voler sur N1538C, la maison Cessna lui donna un autre avion en échange de Charlie qui fut exposé chez Cessna à Wichita puis envoyé en 1975 au Smithsonian Museum où il est exposé. Elle continua à voler avec le nouvel avion donné par Cessna, un C 206 P, N155JM et établit de nombreux records de vitesse et de distance en particulier en volant jusqu'à Rabaul en Nouvelle Bretagne.

On ne peut s'empècher de comparer les préparatfs de Mock avec ceux, ou plutôt le manque de préparatifs de Mrs. Bruce qui partit pour son tour du monde seulement 6 semaines après avoir obtenu son brevet de pilote. Il fallu près de 18 mois à Geraldine Mock pour se préparer, préparer sa route, son avion et ses équipements.

On doit aussi admirer cette femme d'environ un mêtre cinquante (il lui fallait des coussins pour voir au dessus du tableau de bord) volant sur un avion à train conventionnel ( roulette de queue) avec un moteur assez puissant (Continental 0-470). Il y a aujourd'hui plus d'un « moustachu » qui ne saurait faire voler une telle machine, hésitant même à penser à s'entrainer dessus.
Elle navigua à l'estime et n'avait qu'un ADF comme instrument de navigation.

The women of the Air Transport Auxiliary did not take part in combat, but ferried new and refitted planes to RAF bases - freeing fighter pilots to overcome German attacks during the Battle of Britain.

Unsung heroes: (l-r) Pilots Lettice Curtis, Jenny Broad, Wendy Sale Barker, Gabrielle Patterson and Pauline Gower whose contribution to the World War II will finally be recognised

Now the 15 survivors, who also flew planes ranging from singleseat Hurricanes to massive Lancaster bombers, will receive a commemorative badge, Gordon Brown announced yesterday.

He told the Commons: "It is right that we have recognition for those women Spitfire pilots who did so much to protect and defend the airports and other military services during the war."

Their 100 surviving male colleagues will also be recognised.

The badge will be similar to those awarded recently to other "forgotten heroes}", including the

Land Girls, who worked on farms, and the Bevin Boys, who were conscripted into the mines rather than the armed forces.

The ATA, a civilian unit founded in 1938, delivered more than 300,000 aircraft of 130 different types from factories to frontline airfields.

By 1945, it had 650 pilots from 22 countries around the world including Chile, South Africa and the U.S. Of these, 164 were women.

Many members of the unit had been barred from joining the RAF on medical grounds.

Heroines: The Spitfire ladies as they are today

Flying in even the worst weather, they quickly gained a reputation for bravery - 173 pilots and eight flight engineers were killed.

Among them was pioneering aviator Amy Johnson, the first woman to fly solo from Britain to Australia.

She joined the ATA in 1940, but a year later she had to parachute out of her plane and was drowned in the Thames estuary.

Churchill's Cabinet were well aware of the importance of the ATA. One minister said of them:

"They were soldiers fighting in the struggle just as completely as if engaged in the battlefront."

One of the surviving pilots, Mary Ellis, 89, escaped unhurt from two crash landings.

Pilot Joan Hughes is dwarfed by a Short Stirling

She said last night: "Looking back, I suppose I was very lucky. But when you are in your early 20s, you don't think of danger.

"Back then, people thought a woman was odd even wanting to fly."

Mrs Ellis now lives on the Isle of Wight, where she was managing director of Sandown airport.

Joy Lofthouse, now 94, had never even driven a car, let alone flown a plane, when she saw an ATA recruiting advert.

She ended up piloting 18 different aircraft, including Spitfires and Hurricanes.

Pioneer: Pilot Lettice Curtis with a Spitfire during the war

Mrs Lofthouse, from Cirencester, Gloucestershire, said: 'The weather was our biggest enemy.

We didn't have radio contact with the ground and there were a couple of times I thought I'd lost one of my nine lives.

"We're all very pleased about this award of course. The only thing is, it's coming so late there aren't so many of us left alive."

Freydis Sharland: 'I was often frightened'

She said: "I was often frightened, especially in bad weather. Many times I wondered if I would ever see the aerodrome again.

"We lost so many friends.

"The next morning their name would be scrubbed off the board in the office, and the place would be horribly quiet.

"At the end of the war, we were obviously very relieved. Yet I also remember feeling sad it was over."

Mrs Sharland, 87, from Benson, Oxfordshire, became a commercial pilot and once single-handedly delivered a plane to Pakistan - where she was barred from the men-only officers' mess.

Bessie Coleman license
Bessie Coleman was awarded her pilot’s license in 1921 by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale. She trained in France because no American flight school would accept her as a student.

Blanche Stuart Scott
Text excerpt and Image [Smithsonian Institution Negative #72-4803A] used with permission
Copyright © 2000 National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution

Blanche Stuart Scott was the first American woman to take a solo hop into the air, although her flight is not regarded as official.

Always interested in a challenge, Scott became the first woman to drive an automobile coast to coast in 1910. As she passed through Dayton, Ohio, she watched a Wright aircraft in flight, and she received her first airplane ride after she reached California.

Scott's auto trip drew the attention of Jerome Fanciulli, of the Curtiss exhibition team, who asked her if she would like to learn to fly. Glenn Curtiss did not share Fanciulli's enthusiasm for the stunt, however he agreed to give her lessons. She was the first and only woman to receive instruction from Curtiss.

To prevent her aircraft from gaining enough speed to become airborne while taxiing on her own, Curtiss inserted block of wood behind the throttle pedal. However, "something happened" on September 2, and Scott managed to fly to an altitude of forty feet in the air. She continued her lessons and made her debut as a member of the Curtiss team at a Chicago air meet on October 1- 9, 1910.

Scott flew for several exhibition teams, performing inverted flight and "Death Dives" from 4,000 feet. She was bothered by the public's interest in crashes and the lack of opportunities for women as engineers or mechanics, so she retired from flying in 1916. After a career in radio and film writing, she became a special consultant to the Air Force Museum at Wright Patterson AFB in Dayton, Ohio, into the 1950's.

Blanche Stuart 'Betty' Scott
Text excerpt used with permission
Copyright © 2000 National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution

Glenn Curtiss' first and only female student, Scott became America's first female professional flyer and was billed as the "Tomboy of the Air" while touring with the Curtiss Exhibition Team. She became a test pilot for Glenn L. Martin, flying Martin prototypes before final blueprints for the aircraft were drawn up.

Blanche Stuart Scott

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Blanche Stuart 'Betty' Scott
Text excerpt used with permission
Copyright © 2000 National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution

Blanche Stuart "Betty" Scott was born April 8, 1889, in Rochester, New York where her father had a patent medicine business. Impetuous by nature, she soon attracted the attention and ire of the local authorities. The Rochester City Council objected to a thirteen year old driving an automobile about their city. However, there was not yet a minimum age for driving; Blanche was able to continue with her motoring trips.

A few years later, she would again make headlines behind the wheel of a car. In 1910, after attending finishing school, Scott became first woman to drive an automobile cross-country, travelling from New York to San Francisco. The trip was sponsored by the Willys-Overland Company and the car dubbed "Lady Overland."

At the time, there were only 218 miles of paved road outside of the cities of the United States. Scott's trip totalled over six thousand miles, zigzagging between Overland dealers. Scott was accompanied by newspaperwoman Gertrude Buffington Phillips, who did no driving but filed reports as they progressed westward. They left New York on May 16 and reached San Francisco on July 23, 1910.

The trip had given Scott a taste for adventure and publicity. After meeting the press agent for Curtiss, Scott went to Hammondsport, New York in August or September of 1910. She was accepted as Glenn H. Curtiss's first and only female student. Her first flight was on a 35 hp Curtiss pusher fitted with a governor to prevent takeoff on a student's taxi down the field. However, during one of Scott's "grass-cutting" sessions, a gust of wind lifted her suddenly airborne. She achieved a true solo flight shortly thereafter.

There is conflicting evidence regarding the exact date of Blanche Stuart Scott's first solo flight. That date was recognized by the Early Birds to be September 6, 1910. The date is variously given in newspaper accounts as early as August 18, 1910 and as late as mid-October of that year. Unfortunately, a fire reportedly claimed some of Ms. Scott's personal memorabilia during her lifetime. Whether Blanche Stuart Scott or Bessica Raiche was indeed America's first female aviator may never be determined.

After instruction, she joined Glenn Curtiss's Exhibition Team and made her first public appearance in Fort Wayne, Indiana on October 24, 1910. Thus began the career of the woman who indisputably holds the title of America's first female professional flier, then billed as "The Tomboy of the Air." During her exhibition career she earned up to five thousand dollars a week, appearing in meets with such luminaries as Lincoln Beachey and Harriet Quimby.

In 1911, Scott found herself in the odd position of inadvertently setting an aviation record. Scott took off from Mineola one afternoon and impulsively flew sixty miles before alighting back at the field. It was the first woman's long distance flight. Not long after, Scott became the first female test pilot. After contracting to fly for Glenn L. Martin in 1912, she flew Martin prototypes before the final blueprints for the aircraft had been made. In 1913, Scott joined the Ward Exhibition Team. She retired from active flying in 1916.

By the 1930s Scott was working in media, both print and broadcast. She spent nine years in California, writing for RKO, Universal, Warner Brothers and other studios. In a succession of radio shows, Scott appeared as "Roberta" on Hollywood and Rochester area stations, which she wrote and produced. She would also try her hand at stage appearances and short story writing.

On September 6, 1948, Scott was once again achieving distinction. On a flight with pilot Charles E. Yeager in a TF-80C, she became the first American woman to ride in a jet. For the pleasure of his passenger, Yeager included some snap rolls and a 14,000 foot dive. With her skills and experience, Blanche Stuart Scott was uniquely suited for her next mission. Beginning in 1954, she began work for the United States Air Force Museum. Acting as a travelling public relations unit, she sought to obtain materials related to early flight for that museum's collection.

Blanche Stuart Scott passed away on January 12, 1970. She was a member of the 'Early Birds', the 'OX-5 Club' and the 'Long Island Early Fliers Club'.

Blanche Stuart Scott

Smithsonian Institution Negative #72-4803A used with permission

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Blanche Stuart Scott
by Henry M. Holden, © 1991, 2001 Black Hawk Publishing
http://www.women-in-aviation.com

It was Friday, September 2, 1910, and the morning sun quickly burned away the ground fog at Curtiss Field, on Long Island. The day promised to be sunny and warm. Blanche Stuart Scott busily checked the wires and bolts on a single-engine Curtiss "Pusher" airplane.

Blanche Stuart Scott with Glenn Curtiss, 1910

Scott was thoroughly familiar with the construction of the machine. Glenn Curtiss, the machine's builder, had reluctantly given Scott instruction in the care and maintenance of one of his prize machines. Curtiss was also a clever businessperson. Scott insisted on learning to fly, but Curtiss believed aviation was the exclusive province of men. ...more

Gallery

Blanche Stuart Scott

Blanche Stuart Scott "Ready for the Air"

Blanche Stuart Scott, Oakland, California, Feb. 25, 1912

Postal Issues

Blanche Stuart Scott, 28c, 1980

Blanche Stuart Scott, FDC, 1980

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Blanche Stuart Scott, FDC, 1980

Blanche Stuart Scott, FDC, 1980

Further Reading : In Print

Cummins, Julie
Tomboy of the Air
Daredevil Pilot Blanche Stuart Scott