Blanche Stuart Scott

Blanche Stuart Scott 

1910

1910 First Woman to Solo an Airplane (Women in Aviation International)

Blanche Stuart Scott was a woman intrigued by challenges. She was a risk-taker who wanted to see the world. In 1910 she decided to road trip across the country, she became the first woman to drive in an automobile from coast to coast (Smithsonian). While on her journey, she stopped in Dayton, Ohio and witnessed a flight by the Wright brothers. She was truly inspired. Upon completing her trip she was sought out by a member of Glenn Hammond Curtiss’ exhibition team, Jerome Fanciulli (Smithsonian). It was Fanciulloi who convinced Curtiss to teach Scott to fly.

Glenn Curtiss was the founder of the first US airplane company in 1907, he also was the first American, after the Wright brothers, to fly (Cadogan). Scott was the first and only woman taught to fly by Curtiss, and he wasn’t thrilled to teach her in the first place. Many sources have said that he put a block on her throttle pedal. This wouldn’t allow Scott to have the plane accelerate fast enough to get airborne. However, on September 2^nd in 1910 “something happened” and her plane managed to climb off the ground (Hill Air Force Base).

Even though her aircraft only managed to climb up to 40 feet, it made Blanche Stuart Scott the first American female to solo in an airplane, unofficially (Cadogan). To make it official, she completed a public flight operation on October 23, 1910 at an air meet in Fort Wayne, Indiana (Hill Air Force Base). Blanche was a woman filled with ambition and her bravery and gumption helped inspire other women to follow in her footsteps and become pilots as well.

After her public flight in October of 1910 Blanche went on to become a member of Curtiss’ exhibition team for the next 6 years (Cadogan). She became a brilliant stunt flyer, something unheard of for women in those days. In the summer of 1911 Scott flew the first long-distance flight by a woman, from Mineola to Central Islip, Long Island, New York -- a total distance of sixty miles. Scott became both the first female test pilot and the first woman stunt flier, both in 1912 (Hill Air Force Base). She had an amazing career, filled with adventure. Although some called it dangerous, it never stopped her.

Nicknamed the “Tomboy of the Air” she was earning up to $5,000 a week for her flying (Cadogan). Eventually she became tired of the industry she loved. She grew weary of the frustration she felt for all the barriers she had to overcome as a female pilot. In 1916 she retired stating, “in aviation there seems no place for the woman engineer, mechanic or flier. Too often, people paid money to see me rick my neck more as a freak – a woman freak pilot – than as a skilled flier” (Cadogan). However she did stay close within the industry. From 1953 through 1958 she worked for the United States Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio, as a public relations consultant. Her primary role was to acquire materials for the museum's collection related to early flight. She was credited with gathering over $1.2 million worth of vintage aircraft, photos, and memorabilia (Hill Air Force Base). This showed that even though she felt slighted by all of those who put her down as a pilot, nothing could stifle her passion for aviation.

Works Cited

1.     Cadogan, Mary. Women with Wings : female flyers in fact and fiction. London: Macmillan, 1992.

2.     Hill Air Force Base. Blanche Stuart Scott. 14 May 2007. 15 September 2012.

3.     —. Blanche Stuart Scott -- Women in Aviation and Space History. 15 September 2012 <http://airandspace.si.edu/explore-and-learn/topics/women/scott.cfm>.

4.     Women in Aviation International. Women in Aviation International. 15 September 2012 <http://www.wai.org/resources/history.cfm>.
5. Gitelman, Marcia K. Blanche "Betty" Stuart Scott. 11 October 2012 <http://blanchestuartscott.com/home.html>.

Where she rests at Riverside

Cemetery in Rochester, NY

(Gitelman).