Mrs. Martin, too, was pleased. She had gained her point, and now had
another surprise for the company. "Did it ever occur to you that there
are famous flyers who aren't men? It's just like you to neglect the
women altogether."
"Aw," said Bob, "we can't go telling stories about women. We're sticking
to men."
"It seems to me that the women oughtn't to be neglected," said his
mother. "After all, when we women do things, we like to be recognized."
The Captain broke in, then. "Well, how about some of the women? he
asked. Of course, being a woman yourself, you can't enter our
story-telling contest, but you can amuse us from a purely amateur love
of getting in your feminine licks."
Mrs. Martin smiled in the dark. "You think that I won't," she said. "But
I will. I've been doing reading of my own, you know."
"Tell away, Mater," said Bob. "You're better than any of us."
Mrs. Martin began her story. "There are four women who stand head and
shoulders above the rest in the United States," she said, "when it comes
to flying. They are that oddly-assorted group--tall, slender, boyish
Amelia Earhart, who's Amelia Earhart Putnam, now; little Elinor Smith,
who doesn't weigh much over a hundred pounds: medium-sized, gracious and
charming Ruth Nichols, who belongs to the Junior League; and short,
sturdy, daring Laura Ingalls.
"Amelia is probably the first lady of the land, or I should say, first
lady of the air in the United States now, since her solo trans-Atlantic
flight on May 20, 1932. It was fitting that she should make her flight
on the fifth anniversary of Lindbergh's flight to Europe, because she's
always been called the Lady Lindy. She looks like him, you know--long,
lean, blonde, with a shock of unruly curly hair, and a shy, contagious
smile. She has even his modest nature, and the ability to win the hearts
of everybody with whom she comes in contact.
"The solo flight wasn't Amelia Earhart's first trip across the ocean by
plane. You remember her first flight, when she went as a passenger on
the Stultz-Gordon flight in 1928. She's the first person now who has
ever crossed the ocean twice through the air. Amelia is a real
pioneer--she must have adventure and excitement in life--that's why she
gave up social service work, and made flying her profession. It wasn't
easy for her to learn to fly--she just had evenings and Sundays to get in
her practice flights, but she stuck to it, and finally had a sufficient
number of hours in the air to get her pilot's license. Of course, she is
interested in the progress of aviation. Everybody who flies has this
interest at heart--but the love of adventure is uppermost in her mind
when she makes her record flights.
"It was that that sent her across the Atlantic, through storms and sleet
and fog, with no thought of turning back, in spite of decided defects in
her motor that threatened to land her in the middle of the ocean and
send her to certain death.
"There wasn't much publicity before her flight. Since it was going to be
for her own satisfaction, she wanted to keep it to herself. She took off
quietly from Harbor Grace, Newfoundland. The weather was fairly good,
but when she got out a few hours, she met with the same terrifying
flying conditions that her solo predecessor, Lindbergh, had. Fog
enveloped her plane. She could not see in front of her, or to either
side. Ice formed on the wings of her plane, and threatened to break them
off. Gradually the temperature rose, and the ice melted. But new dangers
threatened. A weld in the exhaust manifold broke, and the manifold
vibrated badly; leaks sprang in the reserve gas tanks in the cockpit,
and then--the altimeter broke.
"Now the altimeter, as I suppose you all know, records the altitude at
which the plane is flying. Amelia Earhart had never flown without one,
and now she realized the hazards of not knowing how high she was flying
through the fog. Sometimes she would drop so low that she came suddenly
out of the fog, but so close to the water she could see the white caps
on the surface.
"The girl realized that she must make a landing as soon as possible, and
that was when she reached Culmore, Ireland, a tiny place five miles from
Londonderry. She landed in a field, scaring a team of plow horses, who
had never before seen a woman landing after a trans-Atlantic flight. She
went by automobile to Londonderry, and there received the rousing
welcome that was due her.
"Europe entertained her royally. She was awarded the Distinguished
Flying Cross; she was received by the Prince of Wales; she was partied
and banqueted. And through it all she kept her poise, and modestly
accepted the acclaim that was showered upon her. She was the first woman
to fly solo across the Atlantic, but not only that, she had set a new
speed record for the North Atlantic Ocean, flying a distance of 2,026
miles in about thirteen and a half hours. She had at the same time
broken Ruth Nichols' long distance record for women, which had been set
at 1,977 miles from Oakland, California, to Louisville, Kentucky.
"Ruth Nichols has a habit of setting records. She started to fly at
about the same time that Amelia Earhart started, and has kept nip and
tuck with her, except for the fact that proposed plans of hers to fly
the Atlantic have not as yet been carried out. She was graduated from
Wellesley College, and was a member of the Junior League, which rates
her pretty high in the social scale, but her overwhelming desire for
adventure and pioneering, led her, as it led Amelia Earhart, to choose
aviation as her profession. Ruth Nichols held the long distance record
for women until it was broken by Amelia Earhart. She holds the altitude
record for women, though, and broke the altitude record for Diesel
engines in 1932, at a height of over 21,000 feet.
"Elinor Smith was, in a way of speaking, born in an airplane cockpit.
Her father was a pilot; Elinor made her first flight as a passenger at
the age of eight; took over the controls at twelve; and made her first
solo flight at fifteen. She was so small that her head did not reach
over the top of the cockpit, and the other pilots called her 'the
headless pilot.' It was a funny sight to see a plane land gracefully on
a field apparently with no one to guide it. Then out would pop Elinor, a
grimy little girl, covered with grease from the motor, and with a
cheerful grin on her impish face. It was Elinor, who at seventeen, set
the women's solo endurance record by staying in the air alone for 26
hours and 21 minutes. Elinor should do great things in aviation. She
knows her planes inside and out; she's had the opportunity such as no
other woman has had, to learn the technicalities of aviation when she
was young that she absorbed them as part of herself. Elinor Smith is one
of the most popular women in aviation now.
"Laura Ingalls is the stunt flyer of the women. She came out of the
middle-west, from Missouri. She took to music and dancing first to
express her restless spirit, and then found that it was flying that
would express her best. So she went to a government-approved school, and
became an expert, daring flyer. She is the holder of the record for
loop-the-loops for women, and of the barrel roll record for both men and
women. She is interested in the progress of aviation, but gets a great
thrill out of merely flying for its own sake."
Mrs. Martin paused. "I guess that gives you an idea," she said, "what
women are doing nowadays."
"Women have always done the great things in aviation," said Mrs. Gregg.
"They stay home and wait while the men are risking their lives. Waiting
is harder than doing.
"Women haven't a monopoly on that," said Bob. "What about Mr. Putnam,
who waited at home while his wife flew the ocean?"
Everybody laughed. "You're right, Bob," said Mrs. Gregg. Then she added,
"It's getting pretty late. How about our going, Hal?"
The two of them cut across the garden to their home.