Louise McPhetridge Thaden
(Nov. 12,
1905--Nov. 9, 1979)
One of the most famous American female pilots of the golden
age of aviation, Louise McPhetridge Thaden became the first
woman to win major flying events and awards as well as
setting world performance records. A colleague of Amelia
Earhart, Thaden co-founded the Ninety-Nines, an
international organization for female pilots which continues
to the present day. While history remembered Earhart from
the publicity of her over-water flights and her mysterious
death, Thaden was every bit the celebrity of Earhart during
the 1930s.
She defeated both Earhart and Pancho Barnes to win the first
Women's Air Derby, a transcontinental race from Santa
Monica, Calif., to the site of the 1929 National Air Races
in Cleveland, Ohio. She and co-pilot Blanche Noyes captured
the 1936 Bendix Cup race, winning the New York to Los
Angeles event in the first year women were eligible to
compete. As a result, Thaden received aviation's highest
honour, the Harmon Trophy, in 1936. "We had to prove that
women were as good pilots," Thaden said. "In an age where
some men didn't think a woman should drive a horse and
buggy, much less drive an automobile, it was a job to prove
that females could fly."
The aviation pioneer was born in Bentonville, Ark., the
daughter of Roy and Edna McPhetridge. She was raised in the
small northwest Arkansas town, graduating from local
Bentonville High, and attending the University of Arkansas
in Fayetteville between 1921 and 1925. Majoring first in
journalism, then switching to physical education, Thaden
left college after her junior year, and in 1927 pursued a
job with Travel Air Corporation as a salesperson for the
Wichita, Kan., based aircraft manufacturer. She was
dispatched to Travel Air's San Francisco sales office.
It was in the Bay Area that she married Herbert Thaden, a
former U.S. Army pilot and engineer working on development
of the first American all-metal aircraft, on June 19, 1928.
She also started flying lessons, soloing in 1927 to earn her
pilot's certificate. Signed by Orville Wright, Thaden
received certificate No. 74. Within two years, Thaden would
become only the fourth woman to hold a transport pilot
rating.
The Thadens moved to
Philadelphia, where his Thaden T-4 all-metal prototype was
purchased by the Pittsburgh Metal Airplane Corp, in which
she worked as P/R Director. She also flew the Thaden plane
[C502V] in the 1931 NAR Cross-Country Derby, placing fifth.
(GMC acquired that company later that year, merged it with
Fokker, and moved operations to New Jersey.) Throughout the
'30s she continued to set new altitude, endurance, and speed
records. Another endurance flight followed and another
record fell, that one on Aug 14, 1932—8d:4h:5m in a Curtiss
Thrush (with Frances Marsalis) [NR9142].
Her first world record was the women's altitude mark of
20,260 feet set Dec. 1, 1928. She followed it with a women's
endurance mark of 22 hours, 3 minutes, 12 seconds on March
17, 1929.
On August 19th, she took off from Santa Monica for the
Women's Air Derby, reaching Cleveland on August 27th. Her
notable competition met with ignoble outcomes. Earhart
damaged her Lockheed Vega aircraft with a ground-loop
accident in Yuma, Ariz. Barnes, who first became lost and
veered into Mexico, tore the right wing from her Travel Air
when she hit a Chevrolet in Pecos, Texas. Noyes had an
in-flight fire over west Texas, then suffered a ground loop
at Pecos. By Fort Worth, Texas, Thaden had control of the
race, reaching Ohio after almost 2,500 miles of flying as
the first woman to win a national air race.
In 1930, she and Earhart formed the Ninety-Nines, but
refused the leadership roll. Insisting Earhart become
president, Thaden served as the group's treasurer from
1930-34, then vice-president from 1934-36.
Along with Francis Marsalis, Thaden set a new endurance
record by flying a Curtiss Thrush biplane for 196 hours over
Long Island, N.Y. During the eight days, Thaden made
seventy-eight air-to-air refuelling contacts, and
occasionally made live radio broadcasts to a national
listening audience. The two pilots received food, water and
fresh clothing lowered by rope from another airplane during
the record-setting event.
Her win in a standard factory edition Beech Staggerwing C17R
with Noyes for the Bendix Cup stunned the aviation world.
Thaden's cup victory also set a new east-to-west record of
14 hours, 54 minutes. Thaden retired from full-time
competition in 1938 to devote more time to her family.
During the height of her aviation achievements, she had a
son, Bill, in 1930 and daughter, Pat, in 1933. In 1935,
Thaden worked for the Bureau of Air Commerce promoting
marking of airfields and landmarks nationwide. She published
her memoirs in 1938 entitled High, Wide and Frightened.
Active in the Civil Air Patrol during the Second World War,
she reached the rank of lieutenant colonel. The Bentonville
airport was renamed Louise Thaden Field in 1951, and a
building at the National Staggerwing Museum was named in her
honour in 1974. She died of a heart attack in High Point,
N.C.
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