WOMEN IN AVIATION
While this chapter is called “Women in Aviation,” just as appropriate
a title might have been “Women Outside of Aviation.” For women really
to influence aviation development it is not essential that they be
flyers themselves, although the more who fly the better. When the women
of America are thoroughly “sold” on aviation, not only as a sporting
phenomenon but as an everyday utility, air transport will come into its
own.
Today we have planes for carrying passengers, mail, express and
freight. It is the modern note in transportation, comparable to the
electric refrigerator, vacuum devices and all the other leisure
making appliances of the household. Aviation is another time-saver
ready to be utilized.
Generally speaking, women control the purchasing power of the modern
economic world. It is a brave man who buys another make when his wife
wants a Chrysler! Woman’s influence primarily is responsible for the
rapid development of the American automobile’s beauty and comfort. A
similar influence inevitably will be exerted in connection with air
transport—_if women will fly_. As they became an important factor in
passenger revenue their requirements will be increasingly studied and
met.
Conversely, it is my opinion that if the show windows of aviation were
made more attractive women in far larger numbers would be lured into
the air. Specifically, I mean landing fields and their appurtenances.
The average field today is a comfortless place. Too often its
approaches and its equipment are uninviting. It attracts nobody
except people who have to go there.
The time is coming, I think, when all the fields will be attractive
and convenient. When they are, it will be easier to procure feminine
backing. As it is now, the only thing attractive to feminine eyes, in
many flying fields is the handsome collection of flyers.
Besides flying there is much that women can do in the various branches
of the industry. Many touch it now in factories, offices, fields,
service stations and the like. In such jobs it is ability, not sex,
which counts, in the final analysis.
There should be no line between men and women, so far as piloting is
concerned. Except when the muscular strength of men is a deciding
factor, it hardly seems possible great differences exist. Of course,
so few women have essayed flying that no comparison of ability can
justly be made yet. In them even the desire to learn to fly must
be cultivated so the only possible criterion is that of their driving.
Bring on the arguments.
Age and physical equipment determine the fitness to fly. While there
are many older people learning to fly today, and many excellent pilots
who are no longer young, still it is youth which has the advantage, as
in all physical activities.
I make no statement as to how young youth is. To soothe excitable
mothers, I should say, they needn’t worry yet about children under
seven adding to life’s complexities by trying to fly, and that pilots’
licenses can’t be obtained after fifty-two.
Today there are ample facilities for flying instruction throughout the
United States. It is, however, considerably more difficult for a woman
to procure it than it is for a man. A primary reason is the advantage
a man has through what the army and the navy offer. By enlisting in
either branch the beginner has not only free instruction but
actually receives a salary as well and in due course may emerge as a
competent pilot. There is no such opening for women. She must pay for
the instruction she gets.
And it is just a little harder, too, for the woman to get this
instruction at the average field than it is for the man. It is not
so much that there is any definite prejudice against the woman
beginner—the men are remarkably fair in their attitude—but that as
matters stand, it is pretty well a man-conducted business. Equipment
too is naturally designed for men—for instance, there is no parachute
really adequate for women. Woman is conscious that she is intruding—or
something akin to that—a feeling which causes hesitation. That same
sort of thing prevails in medicine, the law, and other professions, to
a certain degree. Gradually it is being overcome where ability has been
demonstrated. Too often, I think, sex has been used as a subterfuge by
the inefficient woman who likes to make herself and others believe
that it is not her incapability, but her womanhood, which is holding
her back.
Generally speaking, the average cost of ten hours in the air, as I have
said, is about $250. But ten hours in the air doesn’t make a finished
pilot. After such time the average person should be able to solo, but
it is experience which alone counts. A novice can learn to drive an
automobile in a way in a matter of a few hours, but only mileage makes
him competent.
New planes can be bought for a little more than $2000 and up. Hangar
space comes to from twenty-five to fifty dollars a month and up.
Obviously a very large plane will cost more to store and handle than
a small one. A plaything with a wing spread of seventy-two feet, such
as Friendship had, requires as much space as a whole fleet of trucks,
and specialized space at that. It is not simply a matter of a building
in which to house the plane. There should be a well equipped field
outside, with runways, lights, and facilities ranging all the
way from a filling station to a machine shop. And for all of this
overhead one naturally has to pay. The actual cost of plane maintenance
depends entirely upon the amount of use made of it, exactly as with
an automobile. I don’t believe any reliable estimates of up-keep are
available.
[Illustration:
description: Drawing of mermaids waving at Friendship airplane
caption: BETWEEN US GIRLS
Weed in _New York Evening World_
]
[Illustration:
description: Photo close shot of Earhart looking out a window
caption: FIRST LOOK AT BURRY PORT
© _P. & A. Photos_
]
The number of hours a motor can run, without overhauling, depends not
only on the motor itself but the character of the attention given it.
Meticulous care of a plane’s power plant is vital. It is not that the
motors themselves are any more complicated than the engines of large
automobiles, but there simply aren’t any service stations 10,000 feet
in the air. An oversight on a highway means only inconvenience; one
aloft means inconvenience, too—the inconvenience of coming down where
there may be a landing field or there may not.
All of which information may sound indefinite. But I believe exactly
the same uncertainty applies to automobiling. Few people who have
one or two cars can say exactly what a year’s operation costs, when
depreciation, replacement and performance are figured. The cost of
upkeep of any machine depends in a great measure upon the amount of
time the owner himself devotes, or has devoted, to its care and the
degree of skill employed. Withal, I believe that the maintenance of a
plane is probably very little greater than that of a similarly priced
automobile.
There is a belief, I suppose (and perhaps it is well founded) that
women shrink more than do men from the alleged hazards of aviation.
Inheritance, training and environment seem to make women less
aggressive than men, although in real courage I think they are equals.
So much of woman’s excitement through the ages has been pushing the
men into adventure that they have the habit of hanging back a little.
We can’t infer Lady Macbeth lacked courage or ability because she
herself didn’t do the job she wanted Macbeth to do.
Regarding flying risks, as compared to others, there is an endless
field for discussion. Figures as to accidents and flying hours mileage
I have quoted elsewhere. I know the facts and the conclusions to be
drawn from them remain largely a matter of individual opinion. But
whether one feels flying fairly safe or not it must be admitted it is
safer than it was. Recent steps have been made in securing true safety
for the flyer in the last few years. Once attainment of something akin
to it was merely a vague hope. If one flew one took the risks. Selah.
The problems of safety are concerned with the engineering problem
of the motor and design of plane, the skill of the pilot and ground
technique. Probably improvements in the power units will always be
made. But it seems impossible that advances can go on so rapidly as
they have in the last few years. It has been well demonstrated
recently that the multiple engine plane has a factor of safety far
beyond what is possible with the single engine.
The Friendship is equipped with three. If one motor fails the other two
can carry on, even with the large gas supply for long-distance flying
aboard. At the end of a flight, when a minimum load weight has been
reached, it is possible with one motor to keep the plane in the air.
One engine can also greatly prolong the downward glide of the crippled
plane for a forced landing, if need be. For instance, in flying over
the ocean if two motors had cut out simultaneously (an unlikely
contingency), with the remaining one the plane could have continued
much farther than it could have, without any. The power of one motor
would have made possible a flatter, and thus more extensive, glide.
That long glide might enable one to reach a ship lane, or specifically,
come down in the vicinity of some particular vessel that had been
located by radio in the meantime.
The plane and the engine, of course, are no better than their pilot.
His reliability and skill are essential. There are fine men in the
game today and on their capable shoulders the success of flying leans
heavily.
Just as the railway accumulated air-brakes, automatic signals, etc.,
so is the aeroplane being improved with safety devices. Landing places
are included under this head. Their frequency is important, as well as
their conduct. Some fields are so congested that planes have to circle
about for minutes before rules of the air allow them to land. Terminal
operations will have to be worked out as thoroughly as they have been
by railroads and the safety devices of airways—lights, radio, signals,
etc.—be equally efficient.
Despite the fact that there are traffic laws to govern flying, and
inspectors to enforce them, many infringements occur. Bad manners
of the air exist, unfortunately, as they do on the automobile
highways or on the high seas. Any maneuver which endangers another’s
life needlessly, no matter where, seems to me bad manners. The pilot
who flies low over crowds or stunts near the ground, I fear, is not
quite playing the game. His misdemeanors can be reported to the police
and his license number given just as can be an offending automobile
driver.
Most pilots are careful of such breaches of etiquette for their
reputation counts. There are some who overstep, and there will be a few
accidents caused by them from time to time, until they gradually are
reformed.
Possibly that feature of aviation which may appeal most to thoughtful
women is its potentiality for peace. The term is not merely an airy
phrase.
Isolation breeds distrust and differences of outlook. Anything which
tends to annihilate distance destroys isolation, and brings the world
and its peoples closer together. I think aviation has a chance to
increase intimacy, understanding, and far-flung friendships thus.