Women's History

In the beginning of the twentieth century, women were demanding more freedom. What could bring more freedom than a chance to fly? Women went up in those early wire-and-fabric contraptions to gain independence, to make money, or to make their names as pilots. They sought to prove that women pilots could do just as well as men—and some did far better. Flying High: Pioneer Women in American Aviation tells the story of Blanche Stuart Scott, who made $5,000 a week and broke forty-one bones; of Harriet Quimby, who flew the English Channel handily and then fell to her death in five feet of water near Boston Harbor; of Ruth Law and Katherine Stinson, who set American distance flying records—all before any of them were allowed to vote. Flying High: Pioneer Women in American Aviation also tells the tales of women behind the scenes—the financiers, engineers, and factory workers—from the earliest days of flying to victory in World War II. These stories of the first female flyers are told in rare, vintage photographs, many previously unpublished, from the archives of the Glenn H. Curtiss Museum.

Viola Gentry of Rockingham County, North Carolina, learned to fly in 1924 and quickly achieved greater heights. In 1925, the aviatrix took her first solo flight. The following year, she flew under the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges, and in 1928, she established the first officially recorded women's solo endurance flight record. She became the first federally licensed female pilot from North Carolina that same year. She was a national celebrity, and her job in a New York restaurant secured her the nickname the "Flying Cashier." Gentry became personal friends with fellow pioneers of aviation Amelia Earhart, Wiley Post and General James "Jimmy" Doolittle. After a near-fatal crash, Gentry focused her efforts on championing aviation for women and preserving its early history. Author Jennifer Bean Bower reveals the life of one of the great women in Tar Heel State history.