Race to the Finish (AFW Jul/Aug 2022)
by Liz Booker
This article was published in the July/August 2022 issue of Aviation for Women Magazine.
My first exposure to the concept of air racing was ten years into my military aviation career when I sat in a civilian flight instructor’s office at Frederick Flight Center in Virginia. He was half my age with about a quarter of my flight time, but his walls and desk were covered in certificates and trophies from his air race victories. I thought, How fun! I want to do that! Since then, through the many books I’ve read about women in aviation, and studying the history of The Ninety-Nines, I’m much better informed about air race history and even more enthused to race someday. With that goal in mind, I experienced my first Women’s Air Race Classic in June as a start volunteer in Lakeland, Florida.
As with aerobatics, it’s hard to find a book featuring our aviation pioneers that doesn’t include the rich history of air races. In August, the Aviatrix Book Club will discuss some of those pioneers with Fly Girls by Keith O’Brien. The first women’s air race started on August 18, 1929 and marked the inception of the first women’s pilot association. For forty years—from 1969-2009—the local Ninety-Nines chapter honored the history of this race with the 2-day Palms to PinesAir Race from Santa Monica to Oregon. The Los Angeles Chapter of The Ninety-Nines will revive this tradition on August 12-13, 2022 with the theme, “Honoring tradition while supporting a new generation of women pilots.”
The most comprehensive book chronicling the first women’s transcontinental air derby, dubbed ‘The Powder Puff Derby’ by Will Rogers, is Sky Girls: The True Story of the First Cross-Country Women’s Air Race. Author Gene Nora Gessen was one of the ‘Mercury 13’ I highlighted in March—oh, the wonderful web of connection between women in aviation! It follows the competitors from Santa Monica, Ca. on their nine-day quest to reach Cleveland, Oh.
Mike Walker’s Powder Puff Derby: Petticoat Pilots and Flying Flappers starts with the 1929 race, then places it into global context with the stories of other pioneering women in aviation.
For young readers (ages 10-14), check out Steve Sheinkin’s Born to Fly: The First Women’s Air Race Across America and The Roaring Twenty: The First Cross-Country Air Race for Women by Margaret Whitman Blair.
The women had their first crack at the men in the Bendix Air Race in 1935. Established in 1931, Jimmy Doolittle was its first victor. Amelia Earhart was the first and only woman to enter the race in 1935 and came in fifth place. Five women competed in 1936. Louise Thaden and Blanche Noyes took first place in a Beechcraft C17R Staggerwing, with Laura Ingalls placing second. Amelia came in fifth again. Jackie Cochran won first place in 1938. The book Fly Girls: How Five Women Defied All Odds and Made Aviation History is the story of that 1936 air race, when Louise Thaden not only earned a substantial cash prize, but also one of the most beautiful trophies you’ll ever lay eyes on. There is also a young readers’ version of Fly Girls.
From books by and about Amelia Earhart to Pancho Barnes, Jackie Cochran to Bobbi Trout, you’ll find air race stories intertwined. As the winner of the first Women’s Air Derby; the first secretary of The Ninety-Nines, who held the organization together before our first president, Amelia Earhart, was elected; and as the Bendix Trophy winner, I have to highlight High, Wide, and Frightened, by Louise Thaden, with a forward written by Patty Wagstaff—another lovely connection in our beautiful web.
Blue skies and happy reading!
