#elinor smith

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Aviatrix Elinor Smith piloted her plane under the Manhattan Bridge on her way to flying under all four East River bridges, October 20, 1928. Her plane is circled in red.

Photo: Nick Petersen for the NY Daily News via the NY Post

[awesomehistoryloverblog]

The Daring Harriet Quimby, Queen of the Air

Read the latest LOST IN HISTORY post on female aviator Harriet Quimby.

Female Aviator Harriet Quimby Most everyone knows the name Emilia Earhart, the famous female pilot lost at sea in 1937.  But few remember another ground-breaking female aviator named Harriet Quimby.  She was famous a decade before, and was an inspiration to, Emilia Earhart. Today, only aviation buffs know that Quimby was the first American woman to earn a pilot’s license, the first to fly at…

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[bigglesworld]

Elinor Smith of NY, and Bobby Trout of LA, with the radio equipment they took up in their Sunbeam aircraft on the first woman's refueling flight for endurance

[newyorkthegoldenage]

Seventeen-year-old Elinor Smith, aka "The Flying Flapper," established an endurance flying record for women when she landed at Mitchel Field after staying aloft 13 hours, 16 minutes and 45 seconds, January 31, 1929. The record was previously held by Miss Bobby Trout of California. Smith is helped from the plane by her father, Tom Smith (right) and Joseph Brunner, after the flight.

Photo: Associated Press via the Chattanooga Times Free Press

[gameraboy2]

Miss Helen Hicks, 18-year-old golf star, and Elinor Smith, 17-year-old aviatrix, at Fairchild Field, Farmingdale, N.Y., photograph by Leslie Jones

[obsidian-sphere]

Pilot Elinor Smith, the first woman to appear on a box of Wheaties, 1934.

[honestlyclever]

[hagleyvault]

We’re celebrating Women's History Month today with a photograph of Elinor Smith (1911-2010), seen here christening the world's first sound-recording airplane at the Newark Airport in New Jersey, on May 7th, 1929.

At age 16, Smith, once known as the ‘Flying Flapper of Freeport’, became the world’s youngest pilot licensed by the Federal Aviation Administration (Orville Wright signed her license). At age 18, she was hired as the the first female executive pilot of the Irvin Air Chute Co., piloting planes for parachutists.

In years following, she gained renown as a stunt pilot, a reputation first earned by flying under four of New York City's East River bridges in October 1928. Her success in setting records for endurance, speed, and altitude earned her a career as the first woman test pilot, working for both the Fairchild Aviation Corporation and the Bellanca Aircraft Company. In 1930, her fellow aviators voted to award her the honor of the year’s best female pilot, beating out the legendary Amelia Earhart.

Given her reputation, the New York Times had an advance obituary prepared for Smith as early as 1931. The paper wouldn’t need it for another eighty years. Smith’s last flight occurred in April 2001, when she climbed into the cockpit at age 89 to pilot a passenger plane during a visit to NASA’s Langley Research Center. She died almost nine years later, in March of 2010, at the age of 98.

This photograph is part of the Hagley Library’s Lammot du Pont, Jr. collection of aeronautical photographs (Accession 1975.360). To view other items in our Digital Archives from this collection, click here.