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FLY GIRLS
By Keith O'Brien
Between the World Wars, no sport was more popular, or more dangerous, than airplane racing. Thousands of fans flocked to multi-day events, and cities vied with one another to host them. The pilots themselves were hailed as dashing heroes who cheerfully stared death in the face. Well, the men were "those daring young men in their flying machines." But there were also those daring young women in their flying machines. These female pilots were more often than not ridiculed for their "silly efforts" to horn in on a manly, and deadly pursuit.
"Fly Girls" weaves together the stories of five remarkable woman, who formed the core of the Ninety-Nine: Florence Klingensmith, a high school dropout who worked for a dry cleaner in Fargo, North Dakota; Ruth Elder, an Alabama housewife; Amelia Earhart, the most famous but not necessarily the most skilled; Ruth Nichols, who chafed at the constraints of her society parents; and Louise Thaden, the mother of two young children who started out selling coal in Wichita, Kansas. Together they fought to race against the men. They were also part of the race to be the first woman to fly across the Atlantic, a feat accomplished in 1936.
From the first Powder Puff Derby transcontinental race in 1929, through the repeatedly failed, and in the case of Frances Grayson, fatal attempts to fly the Atlantic solo, to the success of Amelia Earhart in 1936 (Earhart flew with Wilmer Stultz and Lou Gordon earlier as a passenger) to the final mysterious failure of Earhart to circumnavigate the world, Keith O'Brien gives insights, not only into the flying work of these women, but takes us deeply into their personal lives; with all their successes and failures.
"Fly Girls" holds particular interest to the folks of "The Cove." Williamsburg native Wilmer Stultz figures more than once in the efforts of the women to fly the Atlantic. Famous for being with Amelia Earhart on her first crossing, Stultz was also part of the original crew of the ill-fated attempt of Frances Grayson to cross the ocean solo. An argument over flight plans and aborted takeoffs, due to weather, led to Stultz withdrawing from the crew. The next day Grayson and crew left New York for the first leg of the journey to Newfoundland. They never arrived and no trace was ever found.
In November 1930, Ruth Nichols left Cincinnati headed for her home in New York. In the Allegheny mountains of western Pennsylvania she found herself in dense fog. Rather than risk crashing into a mountain, she landed in a field outside of Manns Choice near Bedford. With minor damage to the propeller, she spent four days there while repairs were completed.
Fly Girls is a riveting and accurate account of the days "when a few brave women dared to fly."
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