Welcome to You Ask Andy

Scott Shoup, age 9, of Eugene, Ore., for his question:

WHO WAS THE FIRST AMERICAN WOMAN PILOT?

We all know the names of the Wright Brothers because in 1903 they were the first to make a powered flight in aheavier than air craft. But women didn't make too many headlines in the early days of aviation because they weren'tactively involved. It wasn't until Amelia Earhart came on the scene that women became prominent in the flying game.

The first woman pilot in the United States was Neta Snook Southern, the girl who gave Amelia Earhart, America's most famous pioneer woman flyer, her first flying lessons.

She lived happily in Los Gatos, Calif., Mrs. Southern first took to the air in 1917 when aviation was still in its kindergarten days.

Mrs. Southern applied for flying lessons to a private school in Davenport, Iowa. When she arrived, the school turned out to be an old warehouse, with only the skeleton of an airplane inside. The arriving students had to assist in the building of the plane before the first lessons could be given.

Not to be discouraged, Mrs. Southern went to the Curtis Aviation School in Florida where she continued her training.

The Curtis school charged $600 for 600 minutes of training  a time believed to be ample to learn to fly. Lessons ran only 10 or 15 minutes each since it was an exhausting activity during these early days in the air.

When World War I started, the government stopped all private aviation. Still determined to become a pilot, Mrs. Southern went to the British Air Ministry where she tested engines and continued to be part of the flying scene.  After the war she obtained the paperwork that listed her as the first woman pilot in the United States.

After the war Mrs. Southern purchased her own plane, a Canuck. Starting at her parents' home in Ames, Iowa, she barnstormed in the Midwest. She then shipped her plane to California  not taking a chance with flying it because there were no route markings  and settled in Glendale where she tested planes, sewed linen fuselage coverings on Navy planes, did aerial advertising and on weekends took citizens for rides. Here she first met Amelia Earhart and gave her her first flying lessons.

Amelia had her first four or five hours of training in Mrs. Southern's Canuck. She then purchased her own plane ¬a Kinner Airster  and had her next seven hours of lessons from Mrs. Southern in her own plane.

Before Miss Earhart took her first solo, Mrs. Southern retired from flying, trading her plane for a house, a lot and a $500 Liberty Bond.

 

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