Walking on Air (32 page)

78
. CW class in order of takeoff: Phoebe Omlie in Warner Monocoupe; “Chubby” Keith-Miller, New Zealand, Fleet-Kinner 5; Claire Fahy, Los Angeles, Travel Air (with OX-5 engine); Thea Rasche, Germany, Gypsy Moth; Bobbie Trout, Los Angeles, Golden Eagle; Edith Folz, Portland, Oregon, Alexander Eagle Rock Bullet.
New York Times
, 19 August 1929.

79
. DW class in order of takeoff: Marvel Crosson, San Diego, Travel Air; Florence “Pancho” Barnes, San Marino, Travel Air; Blanche Noyes, Cleveland, Travel Air; Louise Thaden, Pittsburgh, Travel Air; Mary Von Mach, Detroit, Travel Air; Amelia Earhart, New York, Lockheed Vega; Margaret Perry, Beverly Hills, Spartan; Ruth Nichols, Rye, New York, Rearwin Curtiss Challenger; Opal Kunz, New York, Travel Air; Neva Paris, Great Neck, New York, Curtiss Robin; Ruth Elder, Beverly Hills, Swallow; Gladys O'Donnell, Long Beach, Waco; Vera Dawn Walker, Los Angeles, Curtiss Robin.
New York Times
, 19 August 1929.

80
. Rules for 1929 Women's Air Derby, Henderson Collection, Western Reserve Historical Society.

81
. Thaden,
High, Wide and Frightened
, 132–133; Planck,
Women with Wings
, 81; Jessen,
Powder Puff Derby
, 25.

82
.
Cleveland Plain Dealer
, 25 August 1929.

83
. Jessen,
Powder Puff Derby
, 59, 66.

84
.
Cleveland Plain Dealer
, 18 and 19 August 1929.

85
. Rules for the 1929 Women's Air Derby, Henderson Collection.

86
. Thaden,
High, Wide and Frightened
, 54.

87
. Scharlau,
Phoebe
, 75.

88
. Elapsed times for the various legs of the Women's Air Derby found in Herbert F. Powell, “The 1929 National Air Races Get Underway,”
Aviation
, 31 August 1929, 466.

89
. Jessen,
Powder Puff Derby
, 84.

90
. Thaden,
High, Wide and Frightened
, 48; Jessen,
Powder Puff Derby
, 94.

91
.
Cleveland Plain Dealer
, 20 August 1929.

92
. Thaden,
High, Wide and Frightened
, 48.

93
. Jessen,
Powder Puff Derby
, 101; Brooks-Pazmany,
Women in Aviation
, 46.

94
. Jessen,
Powder Puff Derby
, 113.

95
. Thaden,
High, Wide and Frightened
, 46;
Cleveland Plain Dealer
, 20 August 1929.

96
.
Cleveland Plain Dealer
, 22 August 1929; Brooks-Pazmany,
Women in Aviation
, 46.

97
. Thaden, “The Women's Air Derby,”
Aero Digest
, October 1929, 62.

98
. Jessen,
Powder Puff Derby
, 106.

99
. Thaden,
High, Wide and Frightened
, 49–50.

100
. Blair,
The Roaring 20
, 91.

101
. Thaden,
High, Wide and Frightened, 51.

102
.
Ogden City (Utah) Standard Examiner
, 20 August 1929.

103
.
Cleveland Plain Dealer
, 22 August 1929. Rasche would be plagued with dirty gas throughout the race.

104
.
San Antonio Express
, 22 August 1929. Thaden thought Crosson might have succumbed to carbon monoxide poisoning, a problem with the Travel Air design with which Thaden had struggled. Before the race, Thaden had installed a four-inch pipe through which she could breathe fresh air. Thaden,
High, Wide and Frightened
, 43–45. Jessen wrote that Beech's factory crew agreed, noting that there was evidence that Crosson had vomited over the side of the plane. Jessen,
Powder Puff Derby
, 153.

105
. Quoted in Blair,
The Roaring 20
, 12.

106
. Thaden,
High, Wide and Frightened
, 51.

107
. Earhart,
The Fun of It
, 138. In all, five people were killed in accidents associated with the 1929 National Air Races: Marvel Crosson, Thomas G. “Jack” Reid (making a solo endurance record), Edward “Red” Devereaux, Mrs. Devereaux and Edward Reiss (killed at Boston racing from Philadelphia); five others were seriously injured. “Cleveland Races and Show,”
Time
, 9 September 1929.

108
. Thaden,
High, Wide and Frightened
, 51; also quoted in Jessen,
Powder Puff Derby
, 129; Brooks-Pazmany,
Women in Aviation
, 46.

109
.
Memphis Press-Scimitar
, 21 August 1929.

110
. Ibid.

111
.
Cleveland Plain Dealer
, 22 August 1929.

112
. Ibid.; Louise Thaden, “The Women's Air Derby,”
Aero Digest
, October 1929, 299.

113
.
Cleveland Plain Dealer
, 23 August 1929.

114
. Jessen,
Powder Puff Derby
, 151–152.

115
. Blair,
The Roaring 20
, 85.

116
.
Cleveland Plain Dealer
, 25 August 1929.

117
. Blair,
The Roaring 20
, 96.

118
. Ibid.

119
. Jessen,
Powder Puff Derby
, 186.

120
. Crowd estimate in
Cleveland Plain Dealer
, 29 August 1929. “The National Air Races and Aeronautical Exposition,”
Aero Digest
, September 1929, 55–56, 120; Russell C. Johns, “Observations at the National Air Races and Exposition,”
Aero Digest
, October 1929, 66–70.

121
. “Cleveland Races and Show,”
Time
, 9 September 1929.

122
.
Cleveland Plain Dealer
, 26 August 1929.

123
. Blair,
The Roaring 20
, 94–95.

124
.
Cleveland Plain Dealer
, 26 August 1929.

125
. Thaden,
High, Wide and Frightened
, 56.

126
. Ibid., 57.

127
. Photo in Brooks-Pazmany,
Women in Aviation
, 48.

128
. Thaden,
High, Wide and Frightened
, 59.

129
. Ibid.

130
. Fourteen women finished the race 26 August; Bobbi Trout arrived the following day to also finish. Blair,
The Roaring 20
, 108.

131
. Thaden won $3,600 for first place in the DW class. Official Standings of the Contestants in the 1929 National Air Races, Henderson Collection.

132
. Final standings in DW class: Louise Thaden, Gladys O'Donnell, Amelia Earhart, Blanche Noyes, Ruth Elder, Neva Paris, Mary Haizlip, Opal Kunz, Mary Von Mach, and Vera Dawn Walker. Light plane finishers: Phoebe Omlie, Edith Foltz, Chubby Keith-Miller, and Thea Rasche. The remaining six in the field did not finish: Pancho Barnes (crashed), Claire Fahy (broken wires), Ruth Nichols (crashed), Margaret Perry (typhoid fever), Bobbi Trout (finished untimed), and Marvel Crosson (killed).

133
. In 1929, the National Air Races adopted the “race-horse start” (all entrants starting at once) for closed course races over the previous method of starting entrants at intervals and having them race against the clock. “The National Air Races and Aeronautical Exposition,”
Aero Digest
, 56.

134
. John T. Nevill, “The National Air Races, Day by Day and in Summary,”
Aviation
, 7 September 1929, 525.

135
.
Cleveland Plain Dealer
, 28 August 1929.

136
. Johns, “Observations,” 68.

137
. Brooks-Pazmany,
Women in Aviation
, 54.

138
. Phoebe was still in braces from her crash in Paragould. Phoebe described breaking her ankle to the
Minneapolis Tribune
, 2 September 1931, and in
The Omlie Story
.

139
.
Cleveland Plain Dealer
, 28 August 1929;
Moline Dispatch
, 14 September 1929; Smith,
Aviatrix
, 142.

140
. Nevill, “The National Air Races,” 525.

141
. The trophy was delivered to the chapter of the National Aeronautic Association to which the entrant belonged, to be held for one year. The Aerol Trophy was awarded only twice for a cross-country women's derby: 1929 and 1930 when Gladys O'Donnell won it. Beginning in 1931, the trophy was awarded to the winner of the women's free-for-all closed-course race. News Release, National Air Races, August 1932, Henderson Collection.

142
. Booklet, 1929 Women's Air Derby, Henderson Collection.

143
. National Air Race Briefs, microfilm, Western Reserve Historical Society.

144
.
Dallas Morning News
, 22 September 1929.

145
. Several sources say Amelia wrote a letter to Ruth Nichols in 1927 discussing the need for a female pilots' association. Phoebe is credited in the official history of The Ninety-Nines; Lu Hollander, Gene Nora Jessen and Verna West,
The Ninety-Nines: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow
(Paducah, KY: Turner Publishing Company, 1996), 11. Phoebe passed credit to Peggy Rex, who suggested the idea at a breakfast held at the “Hostess House” the day after the races. Letter, Phoebe to Pancho Barnes, 29 December 1968, William E. Barnes Collection (private).

146
. Letter, Phoebe Omlie to Glenn Buffington, 28 December 1974, Omlie Collection.

147
. Clara Trenchman, who worked for the Women's Division of the Curtiss Flying Service and edited a newsletter called
Women and Aviation
, contacted four female Curtiss demonstration pilots (Neva Paris, Frances Harrell, Fay Gillis, Margery Brown) who drafted the invitation. Brooks-Pazmany,
Women in Aviation
, 51.

148
. Transcript of letter signed by Faye Gillis, Margorie [
sic
] Brown, Francess [
sic
] Harrell, and Neva Paris, posted on
www.ninety-nines.org/letter.htm
.

149
. Hollander, Jessen, and West,
The Ninety-Nines
, 11; Kay Menges Brick, “The Ninety-Nines: A Glance Backward,” 1959, posted on
www.ninety-nines.org/thirty.htm
. See also, Brooks-Pazmany,
Women in Aviation
, 51–52.

150
. Phoebe was described as chairman of the middle-west division and member of the governing board of the Eighty Sixes,
Moline Dispatch
, 16 December 1929.

151
. Hollander, Jessen, and West,
The Ninety Nines
, 11–12.

1
.
Minneapolis Morning Tribune
, 2 September 1931.

2
.
Moline Dispatch
, 4 June 1930 and 7 July 1930;
The Omlie Story
.

3
. The new plane, NR518W, powered by a 140 hp Warner engine, was considerably faster than the 110 hp NR8971,
Miss Moline. Moline Dispatch
, 12 August 1930;
Commercial Appeal
, 10 September 1930.

4
. This iconic photograph was used for many years in various newspaper articles about Phoebe.
Moline Dispatch
, 2 August 1930.

5
.
Milwaukee Sentinel
, 2 August 1930;
Moline Dispatch
, 2 August 1930.

6
. A photograph of the women with an enormous arrangement of flowers in
Olean (New York) Evening Times
, 7 August 1930;
Moline Dispatch
, 31 July 1930.

7
. The National Air Races returned to Cleveland in 1932 where they remained (except for 1933 and 1936 when they were held in Los Angeles, and suspended for the war between 1940 and 1946) until they were discontinued in 1949. Thomas G. Matowitz Jr.,
Cleveland's National Air Races
(Charleston, SC: Arcadia Publishing, 2005), 7;
Moline Dispatch
, 12 August 1930.

8
. Six women and planes entered each race. Hollander, Jessen, and West,
The Ninety-Nines
, 432–433; Planck,
Women with Wings
, 86. Course of the race reflected in 1930 Engine Log, Omlie Collection.

9
.
Moline Dispatch
, 22 August 1930, 23 August 1930; Phoebe Fairgrave Omlie, “Women in the Air Races,”
Aero Digest
, October 1930, 40–42.

10
.
Chicago Daily Tribune
, 27 August 1930.

11
. Ibid., 24 August 1930.

12
. Ibid., 24 August 1930; Nancy Hopkins Tier, “All Woman's Dixie Derby—1930,” Phoebe Omlie Collection, Ninety-Nines Museum.

13
.
Chicago Daily Tribune
, 24 August 1930.

14
. News accounts reflect Phoebe's insistence upon giving Bowman the lap money:
Moline Dispatch
, 26 August 1930;
Washington Post
, 26 August 1930;
Commercial Appeal
, 27 August 1930. Also see Letter, Phoebe Omlie to Clifford Henderson, 25 August 1973, Omlie Collection.

15
.
Memphis Press-Scimitar
, 25 August 1930.

16
. Gladys O'Donnell, flying a Taper Wing Waco, won the Pacific Derby and the Aerol Trophy in 1930.
Moline Dispatch
, 29 July 1930.

17
. Ibid., 27 August 1930.

18
.
Time
, 1 September 1930.

19
.
Chicago Daily Tribune
, 27 August 1930.

20
.
Memphis Evening Appeal
, 25 August 1930 and 27 August 1930.

21
.
Memphis Evening Appeal
, 27 August 1930;
Moline Dispatch
, 28 August 1930; Underwood,
Of Monocoupes and Men
, 20. At a time when the national hourly wage was about 50 cents, this was big money. The purchasing power equivalent in today's money is approximately $57,200.