Walking on Air

by Janann Sherman

Coming across the trackless desert of southern California, Mary Haizlip got lost and wandered into Mexico. Haizlip, who had started the race a day late while awaiting a new plane after having mechanical problems with the first one, approached Calexico after dark. After landing where she saw lights, Haizlip learned she was on the wrong side of the border. It took her several hours to work her way through the red tape to get clearance from Mexican authorities and get out of there.93 Three women were forced down in the desert with mechanical difficulties. Bobbi Trout ran out of fuel just short of Yuma, landed in a plowed field, cart-wheeling her Golden Eagle and doing serious damage. She was out of the race for three days while her plane was repaired.94 Thea Rasche damaged her landing gear in a forced landing in the desert after a clogged carburetor stopped her motor; her fuel line was full of contaminants, including scraps of fiber and rubber. Rasche had been handed a telegram while still in Santa Monica warning her to watch out for sabotage. This, she said, was proof.95 Further proof seemed to come from Claire Fahy, who had been forced down at Calexico with broken wing struts on her Travel Air. She claimed foul play; she charged that someone had deliberately poured acid over her wire wing braces. Following a hastily called press conference, Fahy withdrew from the race.96

  Yuma was “ten degrees hotter than blazes.”97 Wind had drifted sand over the runway, making it difficult to distinguish the landing strip from the surrounding desert. Phoebe landed okay, leading the way in the small plane class. Amelia ran off the edge, nosed over, and broke her propeller. She immediately called to have a propeller flown in from Los Angeles. The other pilots elected to delay the race long enough for Amelia to get back in the race.98 As a consequence of their late start for Phoenix, they took off in the hot afternoon. One-hundred-twenty-degree temperatures bred heat thermals, violent updrafts followed by equally violent downdrafts that pitched the pilots about in their seats. The struggle to maintain control and the desolation of the terrain stirred their fevered imaginations. Thaden described her experience:

  Surreptitiously you strain to the side, searching out possible spots where a landing might be made, analyzing swiftly, working out a plan of possible procedure. Would it be better to pancake in, or go in on a wing to absorb shock? Through your mind’s eye flashes a picture of a twisted mass of tangled wreckage, lying in a small crumpled heap far off the beaten track. You see yourself painfully crawling from between broken logerons and telescoped cowling, to lie gasping under the pitiless glare of the desert sun, helpless and alone.99

  Phoenix was like an oasis, a big well-maintained airport with experienced mechanics, hot showers, and another chicken dinner. Pancho Barnes was late into Phoenix. She had apparently followed the wrong set of railroad tracks coming out of Yuma and wandered over the border. She realized her mistake when locals told her “hola” instead of “hello.” Pancho hurriedly took off, avoiding a confrontation with authorities that had delayed Haizlip. Upon arrival, Pancho painted “Mexico or Bust” on the side of her plane.100 Phoebe was still leading in the light plane division, running about two hours behind Thaden, who had been consistently ahead in the heavy plane class.

  Everyone arrived safely at Phoenix except Marvel Crosson. She had not been seen since the group took off from Yuma. Rumor had it that she had crashed in the desert, but search parties had found nothing. The women met to comfort one another and reassure one another that Marvel, no matter what happened, would want them to go on. Thaden was philosophical.

  If your time has come to go, it is a glorious way in which to pass over. Smell of burning oil, the feel of strength and power beneath our hands. So quick has been the transition from life to death there must still linger in your mind’s eye the everlasting beauty and joy of flight …. We women pilots were blazing a new trail. Each pioneering effort must bow to death. There has never been nor will there ever be progress without sacrifice of human life. … To us the successful completion of the derby was of more import than life or death.101

  The women took off for Douglas, Arizona, the next day. The news of Crosson waited for them. Following the directions of witnesses who said they had seen the plane go into a tailspin, diving earthward from about 1,000 feet, and plunge into heavy cottonwood growth along the Gila River, searchers found Marvel’s body in a boulder-strewn ravine at daybreak. They carried the body out of the remote area north of Wellton, Arizona, on horseback. The badly broken body was found about 300 feet from her smashed plane, around her was draped a parachute that had not opened.102

  The news of Crosson’s death, along with charges of sabotage by Fahy and Rasche, and the two incidents of oil being put in fuel tanks early in the race, prompted a series of investigations, focused mainly on the security of the planes at San Bernardino and to a lesser extent, Clover Field. The report issued by the district attorney at San Bernardino two days later said that the investigations failed to disclose any foundation for the sabotage charges. They found that the planes had been adequately guarded from suspicious characters or overly curious crowds and that Rasche’s telegram had been proven spurious. Someone from Moth Aircraft, the maker of Rasche’s ship, found no evidence of tampering and attributed the contaminants to a recently replaced fuel line.103 J. W. Noel, an inspector for the Federal Department of Commerce who investigated Crosson’s crash, also found no evidence of tampering. It was his opinion that she fell ill due to the desert heat and lost control of her ship. She may have tried to jump but had insufficient altitude to open her parachute.104

  Calls for stopping the race bounced around in the media following the death of Marvel Crosson. Women should not be allowed to risk their lives, cried the headlines. “Airplane Races Too Hazardous an Adventure for Women Pilots,” said an editorial in The New York American;105 “Women Have Conclusively Proven They Can’t Fly”; “Women’s Derby Should Be Terminated.”106 But as Amelia later wrote, “A fatal accident to a woman pilot is not a greater disaster than one to a man of equal worth. Feminine fliers have never subscribed to the super-sentimental valuation placed upon their necks.”107 A Texas oilman named Halliburton stated categorically that “Women have been dependent on man for guidance for so long that when they are put on their own resources they are handicapped.” Derby manager Frank Copeland responded that “We wish officially to thumb our collective nose at Halliburton. There will be no stopping this race.”108 The women pressed on to El Paso.

  Chubby Keith-Miller ran out of gas and had to set down in the desert. She walked eighteen miles for fuel only to return and find that cactus had ripped her fuselage. Some assistance from a farmer armed with duct tape got her going long enough to get to El Paso.109 At El Paso, fierce winds and swirling sands made landing treacherous. Phoebe was still leading the CW class with an elapsed time of 8:35:24, and still about two hours behind Louise (6:48:31).110 Reports of dangerous thunderstorms at Pecos, their next stop, held the women in El Paso overnight.111 Fatigued from long days of flying, long evenings of festivities, and the endless fixing and patching of their planes, the pilots looked forward to a brief respite at El Paso since it had not been intended to be an overnight stop. Word quickly spread, however, and hundreds rushed to the field. Derby participants spent some three hours signing autographs. The women were “marooned at our crates by mobs who demanded signatures. Books, scrap paper, backs of envelopes, fine writing paper and everything else …. Without doubt, every man, woman, and child in Texas has our autographs,” wrote Louise.112

  The next day dawned bright and clear, perfect weather as they climbed to 6,000 feet to get over the mountains, but the trip to Pecos was yet another test of the women’s abilities. The runway at Pecos was a narrow strip hastily cleared out of mesquite and sage brush, lined with automobiles on both sides. To avoid hitting them, Edith Foltz ground looped and Gladys O’Donnell overshot the field, both mishaps causing minor damage to landing gear. But this was a very bad day for Pancho. She had been forced to turn back to El Paso shortly after takeoff when one cylinder stopped functioning. She was on her way in an hour after the repai
r of her broken exhaust valve. But coming into land at Pecos, she smashed her plane into an automobile parked too close to the runway. She was unhurt, but both wings had been irreparably damaged. She had to withdraw from the race.113

  Blanche Noyes landed shortly afterward, wobbling down the runway on one wheel. She emerged from the cockpit covered with black soot. She told a harrowing tale of having fought a fire in her baggage compartment. The terrifying smell of smoke forced her to land quickly in the desert, side-slipping her plane to take the airflow away from the direction of the smoke. She could not budge her fire extinguisher from its holder, so she ripped it and part of the wooden flooring out of the plane, severely burning her hand. Then she used sand to put out the rest of the fire. She had lost a wheel taking off from the soft sand. Her burns were treated and her plane repaired in Pecos.114 Chubby arrived to tell of being caught in a dust-devil, a miniature twister common in the desert. Helplessly, she hung on while her plane flipped several times in the air, losing altitude fast. Deciding against using her parachute, she rode through the ordeal, managing to retake control of her plane a few hundred feet from the ground.115

  The fliers pressed on through three stops in Texas, Midland, Abilene, and then Fort Worth for an overnight stop. Phoebe, with an elapsed time of 13:28:50, and Louise at 11:04:30, maintained their leads in their respective classes. By this time, the pilots were exhausted. Several of them had made multiple unplanned landings, multiple repairs, and this day was one of their longest for having to make up for the unexpected overnight stop in El Paso. Margaret Perry, who had been battling illness for several days, checked herself into the hospital. She told physicians that she barely remembered landing her plane in Fort Worth. They found she had typhoid fever. Perry was out of the race.116

  There was a three-hour stop in Tulsa, then on to Wichita, Kansas, Louise’s home, for a tumultuous welcome. The pilots finally left the desert behind, but they danced in between thunderstorms all the way to Kansas. Upon arrival, they dutifully cleaned up and dressed up as best they could for the banquet and festivities, but they could not disguise the white pattern of their goggles across their brown sun- and wind-burned faces. Coming out of Wichita, Gladys O’Donnell upended her plane, damaging the propeller. Her mechanic quickly filed off the tip and she was on her way.117

  From Wichita the fliers turned eastward for their next overnight stop at Parks Airport in East St. Louis. The field was very short with obstructions at either end. Blanche Noyes landed first but, in her second Women’s Derby accident, she damaged a wheel. Neva Paris came in too fast, overshot the field, and cracked her undercarriage. Ruth Nichols also had trouble landing and damaged one wheel. Thea Rasche was still struggling with contaminated fuel; she reported a forced landing between Kansas City and St. Louis to clean a clogged fuel line. Mary Haizlip was also forced down fourteen miles west of St. Louis with a broken gasoline line. And Bobbi Trout, a full day behind because of engine trouble at Pecos, still had not caught up.118 Louise Thaden maintained her lead with an elapsed time of 16:27:57, although Gladys and Amelia were gaining a bit on her. Phoebe, at 20:23:33, was almost two hours ahead of her nearest CW challenger, Edith Foltz.119

  In Cleveland, the big party had already started without them. On 24 August, the day the derby landed in East St. Louis, the 1929 National Air Races and Aeronautical Exposition opened at Cleveland for a ten-day run. An estimated 300,000 spectators lined the streets for a massive parade: four miles of floats, most of them covered with fresh flowers, depicted the advance of transportation from the horse-drawn skids of native Americans to the chariots of the Persians to the locomotive and automobile and culminating in the airplane. Twenty-one bands and 1,500 marchers accompanied the floats while an armada of military and civilian aircraft, including three blimps, flew overhead. Every evening featured a musical extravaganza with a cast of 120 called “Wings of Love,” capped by night-flying exhibitions and pyrotechnic displays. Over 100,000 spectators paid admission to the first day of the races, the largest gathering in the city’s history, overflowing the 30,000-seat capacity grandstands and the 38,000 parking spaces. Roads leading into Cleveland were blocked for hours.120

  The daily flying schedule included “dead-stick” landing contests with pilots coming in with the engine off, glider demonstrations, balloon-bursting contests, lighter-than-air craft, homing pigeon races, endurance contests, aerobatics exhibitions, parachute jumping contests, and military demonstrations. The Navy High Hat precision flying Squadron of nine planes performed intricate aerobatics while roped together with twelve-yard ropes in units of three. They took off together, rolled together, looped together, never losing their formation and never breaking the ropes that connected them.121

  As the women left East St. Louis, there remained only two intermediate stops—Terre Haute and Cincinnati—and one more overnight stop at Columbus. Then a short hop into Cleveland on the final day. Chubby Keith-Miller was forced down near Xenia, Ohio, with engine trouble. She decided to stay the night with the farm family nearby.122 Bobbi Trout landed in a farmer’s field outside Cincinnati with engine trouble, then further damaged her plane when the fence ripped a large hole in her aileron. She patched it with a piece of tin can and some bailing wire, then limped back into the race.123 Thea Rasche and Ruth Elder also made emergency dead-stick landings. Rasche discovered her oil case was almost empty; Elder’s motor failed on final approach and she skillfully threw her ship into a sharp bank to avoid a smashup.124 Louise and Phoebe were still leading their respective classes, due largely, it seems, to the fact that they had not had mechanical problems. Louise suspected sabotage at St. Louis: “I was still in the lead which may account for someone filing the breaker points on both magnetos during the night.” Fortunately, her mechanic discovered them before takeoff.125

  The final day of the race, owing to a late takeoff for the short hop into Cleveland, the women were able to rest in the morning. Ruth Nichols, who’d had some work done on her plane, took it up for a shakedown before the race resumed. As she came in for a landing, she failed to see a steamroller parked at the end of the runway and smashed into it head on, somersaulting the plane and landing upside down in the dirt. Nichols crawled out of the wreckage, but her plane was totally destroyed and she was out of the race.126

  As the women took off for the 126 miles to Cleveland, Phoebe was comfortably in the lead in the CW class, and Thaden was an hour ahead of O’Donnell and almost two hours ahead of Earhart. A huge crowd awaited the arrival of the Women’s Derby and when Louise Thaden’s Travel Air came into view, the crowd went wild. She barely got her prop stopped before the crowd surged around her. A dozen men picked up Thaden and her plane and carried them to a spot in front of the grandstand.127 Into the microphone thrust in her face, Thaden said, “I’m glad to be here. All the girls flew a splendid race, much better than I. Each one deserves first place, because each one is a winner. Mine is a faster ship. Thank you.”128 Thaden later told reporters that she won only because she had the fastest ship. Since the Women’s Derby was a speed race, “the heavyweight rates the honors.”129

  Thirteen women came in behind her. Gladys O’Donnell was the second to arrive, Amelia Earhart third, and Blanche Noyes fourth.130 Phoebe was the fifth plane to land, hardly noticed in the tumult that gathered around Louise and Amelia. Nonetheless, she had handily won the trophy for the CW class and the $600 prize money.131 Altogether the women had traveled 2,759 miles, averaging just over 300 miles and two chicken dinners a day.132

  The finish generated considerable excitement, but it was the closed-course races that provided the most thrills for the fans in the stands. These head-to-head races were ten laps around a five-mile circuit marked by prominent towers called pylons. This kind of flying requires a great deal of skill and control. The contesting planes line up abreast of each other. At the drop of the starter’s flag, they all begin their takeoffs simultaneously and head for the first pylon. Any plane passing another must keep at least 150 feet to the right of, or 50 feet abo
ve, the plane being overtaken, and must never attempt to pass between that plane and the pylon. The plane being overtaken must hold its altitude and course so as not to interfere with the faster plane. The trick is to fly as fast as one can and as close to the pylons as possible, tipping the plane up on its wingtip at an alarming 40–50 degrees of bank, sweeping around the pylon with just a few feet to spare.133

  The Ladies CW Class Race was the first appearance of women pilots in closed-course racing.134 Adding to the danger were other events taking place simultaneously. Due to the direction of the wind, the U.S. Navy exhibition team took off directly in front of the stands, sending up a cloud of dust near the home pylon and making the women’s race temporarily invisible to the crowd and extremely dangerous for the women making the turn.135 Despite the difficulties, “Phoebe Omilie [sic] in particular seemed to be gifted in her ability to get around the pylon in a matter of a few seconds in her diminutive Warner-powered Monocoupe.”136 She clocked the race at 112.37 mph, easily defeating her opponents. Chubby Keith-Miller finished at 98.73, Lady Mary Heath 96.17, Blanche Noyes 85.12.137 Upon landing, Phoebe learned that she was disqualified for missing a pylon. Adding injury to insult, as Phoebe climbed out of Miss Moline at the end of the pylon race, she stepped from her plane into a hole in the field and once again broke her ankle.138 She filed a protest against her disqualification arguing that when she had realized she had flown inside a pylon she had doubled back and circled it, so her win should count. Her claim was substantiated by Chubby Keith-Miller and Lady Heath.139 The Contest Committee ultimately reversed their decision; Phoebe added $500 and another trophy to her winnings.140

  Best of all, Phoebe took the Aerol Efficiency Trophy. The Cleveland Pneumatic Tool Company, maker of Aerol (air and oil, the first oleo-pneumatic landing-gear shock absorber) struts, donated the perpetual trophy called “Symbol of Flight” and $5,000 prize money to the Women’s Derby.141 Their aim was “to equalize the chances of the small and large planes to win this trophy.”142 In the contest for efficiency, it was not the fastest, highest-powered plane that won but the pilot who demonstrated ingenuity, navigation, and endurance. The $3,000 solid silver trophy of a woman flier standing atop of a globe was awarded based upon a computed formula: average mph times 2.5 divided by the cubic-inch piston displacement. This would yield the figure of merit. Phoebe’s figure of merit was 289.3; the derby winner, Louise, had a figure of merit of 273.2. Though Phoebe’s average speed was 108.19 mph while Louise’s was 135.97, when that was divided by the cubic-inch displacement of their respective planes, Phoebe won for efficiency or the best miles per hour per engine size.143