Flying With America's Most Famous Female Aviators
Dozens of talented women preceded Amelia Earhart, and thousands have followed, and each has her own groundbreaking story to tell
- By Patricia Trenner
- Smithsonian.com, October 22, 2009
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(Library of Congress)
Harriet Quimby (1875-1912)
Inspired by a story she was reporting, Quimby, a journalist by profession, became the first female licensed pilot in the United States in 1911. She immediately made several memorable exhibition flights, including a moonlit night flight over Staten Island, New York. The next year she became the first woman to fly solo across the English Channel, just three years after Louis Blériot first accomplished that feat. A few months later as hundreds looked on during an aviation meet in Boston Harbor, she fell to her death out of a plane flying at 1,500 feet.
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Comments (31)
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this was really helpfull but i could not find bessie coleman
Posted by breonna blckwwell on April 12,2013 | 10:23 AM
Well....she won't do that again........
Posted by Paul Ricketts on October 15,2012 | 03:21 AM
Why Katherine Sui Fun Cheung is not included in this report! She was America's First Chinese-American pilot. She was also part of the 99er club.
Posted by Thu on April 5,2012 | 05:07 PM
She was well known for her jumpsuit which was colored purple.
Posted by Joe on February 27,2012 | 05:24 PM
I have been doing research on Mary riddle on and off for nearly a year. I will speak with anyone who would like to discuss this wonderful and fascinating lady. I will be doing a story about her in our next newsletter. contact me at the Aberdeen Museum of History (360) 533-1976
Posted by Dann Sears on September 13,2011 | 11:40 PM
although i am only young, this site has given me valid information and i don't know anybody however i am truly inspired by all of this
Posted by lina cosgrove on June 1,2011 | 09:13 PM
I'm proud to say Mary Riddle came from Tribe. Would like to get in contact with David Kaufman and anyone else that knew Mary. My e-mail is jeremy2feathers@yahoo.com. Thanks
Posted by Jeremy Millard on December 15,2010 | 11:03 AM
I knew Mary Riddle and be happy to talk to anybody. I worked in the same company as Mary, Gibbs & Hill.
Posted by David Kaufman on November 2,2010 | 08:00 AM
mary riddle was the first native amrican women to be an aviator
Posted by Mace on October 28,2010 | 01:38 PM
I think it was fasinating you flew the famouse 99er.
Posted by Jason Caos Fritz on October 25,2010 | 02:31 PM
I knew June Reynolds Edwards in the 1960s. At the time she was a television personality on Channel 17 in Bakersfield, California where her husband, Wayne, was working as a crop duster.
June told me how at one time she had as many hours in the air as Amelia Earhart, had been a president of the Ninety-Nines and one of the first women crop dusters. One of her jobs was flying a crop duster to Cuba in the pre-Castro days and teaching men there to crop dust.
She suddenly left Bakersfield around 1968 and I have not located her since. Why is she not listed on any website or in any aviation books on women pilots if this info is true?
Anyone out there know anything?
Thanks for info.
Posted by Marilyn Adams George on August 28,2010 | 06:46 PM
Why is there no photograff of Beryl Markham?? She was an incredible aviator and writer as well.
Posted by Don on August 6,2010 | 08:28 PM
Harriet Quimby has a book written about her. It's called Wings. I have always wondered if that book was based off true events, now I know. I encourage anyone who loves aviation to read it. It is a romance/adventure book, and is very informative in an interesting way. It's not like reading a biography.
Posted by JOSH on July 21,2010 | 09:21 PM
The photo labled Betty Skelton is definately not Betty. That photo would have been taken pre-WWI according to the pilot dress. Betty was not even alive during that time. She did not come into fame until AFTER WWII.
Posted by Andy Heins on June 10,2010 | 11:36 AM
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