by Keith O’Brien, 2018
Suspenseful non-fiction about 5 women who flew airplanes in the 1920s and 1930s. They battled against much prejudice but held fast to their dreams. The only one I’d heard about, of course, was Amelia Earhart. But there were 4 other women who should have been household names as well: Frances Grayson, Ruth Elder, Ruth Nichols, and Louise Thaden. Also learned about the history of flying in general in America.
Cliff Henderson started annual air races and convinced Vincent Bendix to offer prize money and a glorious trophy to the winner. It’s amazing how many pilots, male and female, died in horrible crashes trying to set records. But whenever a woman crashed, the press and the public would blame it on her womanhood. The worst case was against Florence Klingensmith, who died in a dangerous Gee Bee plane because the fabric tore on the right wing, but the press decided it was because she was in a weakened state due to menstruating. They sent her body back to her hometown naked and wrapped in newspaper and inside of a cheap coffin.
It’s amazing how many pilots survived horrible crashes, too. One husband and wife duo, Benny and Maxine Howard, favored to win the Bendix trophy, had to crash-land in the badlands of New Mexico. They were alive and conscious but trapped in their plane and badly injured. Navajo Indians saw the plane come down and watched them for over 3 hours before help finally came from the nearest town. They cut them out of the plane and got them to a hospital. Benny’s leg had to be amputated and he never flew again.
Two notable male characters are Walter Beech and Cliff Henderson. Walter Beech started making airplanes in Wichita in the 1920s, but his airplane business didn’t really take off until he married Olive Ann. She was the brains behind Beechcraft.
Cliff Henderson started the annual air races that were so popular and made many people in American interested in aviation. He talked Vincent Bendix, a wealthy Chicago manufacturer, into supporting the annual races, which became the Bendix race with the famous Bendix trophy. When Cliff Henderson retired from directing air races, he moved into the desert and started the town of Palm Desert (@1948).
Of course, the history of Amelia Earhart is told in detail, too, and it is fascinating. She went down somewhere in the Pacific in July 1937 in her attempt to fly around the world. She made it as far as New Guinea and took off on July 2 for the next leg of her journey, which was the tiny Howland Island in the Pacific. The radio operator on the Itasca was the last person to hear her voice and he said she ‘sounded like a woman who was staring out at a vast and unforgiving ocean, knowing she was about to crash into it.’ She was unable to find the tiny island and ran out of gas and crashed into the Pacific Ocean.
They searched for her and her crew mate and her plane for months but never found a trace. She was finally declared dead in January 1939. There are many conspiracy theories about Amelia Earhart, mostly involving the Japanese, even though they helped search for her. WWII started soon thereafter.
Excellent, well-written book. Aunt Judy loaned it to me; it was a gift to her from Danette.