Discussions

In the theme of the Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum’s Tiger Moth Ball on Saturday October 12th, at the Victoria Inn, and B.U.’s Women’s History Month I will share with you the story of one of the early Barnstormers to grace the air of Brandon. This person was one of the early dare devils who sold excitement to the public. This aviatrix personality was named Katherine Stinson. She was born on Valentine's Day, February 14, 1891, in Fort Payne, Alabama. She was fragile and dainty, but her friendliness and soft refined voice masked unbounded endurance and courage. She was a brunette version of Mary Pickford with long chestnut curls fringing her checkered cap. She was definitely feminine. She was America's sweetheart of the airways at that time as surely as Mary Pickford was America's sweetheart of the silent screen. After making a balloon ascent in 1911, she started taking flying lessons. She was the 4th, woman in the U.S. to obtain a pilot’s license from the Aero Club of America, it was number 148, she flew in a Wright Brothers Biplane and motor on July 12, 1912 at the age of 21. Flying lessons cost her $500, and the family piano was sold to help pay for them, she had planned to follow a music career, but she never needed the piano again. On July 18th, 1915 at Cicero Field Chicago she became the first woman to loop-the-loop, which she repeated over 500 times at various exhibitions around the world. Katherine Stinson later added to that by inventing a maneuver of her own - the "Dippy Twist Loop" (a loop with a snap roll at the top). In the early days of WW1 she served as a pilot instructor and toured around North America giving exhibitions in her Laird biplane, (made by Matty Laird), with her mechanic, Rudolph “Shorty” Schroeder, probably to find recruits for the War effort. On the exhibition circuit, she was known as the "Flying Schoolgirl." After a Firework’s display the eager crowd would wait in anticipation, and soon a megaphone announced that the great aviatrix, Katherine Stinson, would make a daring night flight above the field, executing the difficult figure eight maneuver, but before taking off she took her place in the open cockpit, strapped her safety belt, pushed the visor of her checkered cap around, tucked her curls up into it to keep them out of her eyes, and Shorty spun the wooden propeller with one swing to start the motor and signaled Katherine away. She opened the throttle, taxied to the end of the airstrip, and the next thing she was in the air. The crowd followed her maneuvers by the lighted flares, (Roman Candles) attached to the wings, which drew luminous figure eights against the dark sky as she circled above the racetrack. The crowd watched, spellbound. After about ten minutes she came in for a landing. Cutting her motor was a signal to those tending the burning tar barrels placed at intervals along the edge of the racetrack, to throw a small can of gasoline on their fires so they would flare up simultaneously to give light to guide her in. She always made a perfect landing and taxied her plane over to where Shorty was waiting. It is reported that she was paid $500 per flight.  
While at the Brandon Provincial Exhibition of 1916 she made a visit to Camp Hughes where she met the boys in the trenches and took some rifle practice. On her return to Brandon she is reported to have “flipped her wings”, (waved) and made an unscheduled landing in a Douglas grain field. During exhibition flights in Canada, Katherine Stinson set a Canadian distance and endurance record. She had many accidents, but she flew the United States mail for a period. On 9th, July 1918 she flew from Calgary to Edmonton carrying First Class Mail. She followed the old Calgary and Edmonton Railway line. This was the first ever airmail flight in Western Canada. During the War Katherine twice attempted to become a combat pilot, and was rejected, and so she became an ambulance driver for the Red Cross in Europe. While there, she contracted influenza, which turned into tuberculosis in 1920, causing her retirement from aviation. Although she could no longer fly, she worked as an architect for many years in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In 1928 she married an airman who later became a District Court Judge, and became Mrs. Michael Otero Jr. She died in 1977 at the age of 86. She had done it all -- a true pioneer.  
Note: The pilot or team of aviators when coming to a town would land at a local farm (hence the name "barnstorming") and negotiate with the farmer for the use of one of his fields as a temporary runway from which to stage an air show and offer airplane rides to customers. After obtaining a base of operation, the pilot or group of aviators would fly back over the town, or "buzz" the village, and drop handbills offering airplane rides for a small fee, usually from one to five dollars. The advertisements would also tout the daring feats of aerial daredevilry that would be offered. Crowds would then follow the airplane, or pack of planes, to the field and purchase tickets for joy rides or a show.  
Source: Brandon Sun Archives, Book, Brandon a prospect of a city. http://www.tsha.utexas.edu