Blanche Noyes
| Blanche Noyes | |
|---|---|
| 250px | |
| Born | June 23, 1900 Cleveland, Ohio |
| Died | Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist. Washington, D.C. |
| Occupation | Aviator |
| Spouse(s) | Dewey Noyes (c. 1900 – 1935) |
Blanche Noyes (June 23, 1900 – October 6, 1981) was an American pioneering female aviator who was among the first ten women to receive a pilot's license.[1][2] In 1929, she became Ohio's first licensed female pilot.[2]
Biography
She was born Blanche Wilcox on June 23, 1900 in Cleveland, Ohio.[2] She gave up her acting career[3] after marrying pilot Dewey L. Noyes (c. 1900 – 1935).[4]
She started flying in 1929 after getting a lesson from her husband.[1] She soloed on February 15 after four hours of training and received her pilot's license in June of the same year.[2][3]
Noyes entered the inaugural Women's Air Derby in August 1929, one of twenty competitors attempting to fly from Santa Monica, California to Cleveland.[5] Along the way, she "narrowly escaped death when her plane caught fire in mid-air near Pecos."[6] She set down so hard her landing gear was damaged.[6] She put out the fire, made repairs and resumed the race.[6] She placed fourth in the heavy class.
She was a demonstration pilot for Standard Oil in 1931 and flew with various organizations until her husband died in a crash in 1935.[3][4]
In 1936, she teamed up as co-pilot to Louise Thaden and won the Bendix Trophy Race in the first year women were allowed to compete against men. They set a new world record of 14 hours, 55 minutes from New York City to Los Angeles, California. They flew a Beech C17R Staggerwing biplane. Laura Ingalls, another aviatrix, came in second by 45 minutes flying a Lockheed Orion.[7][8]
While living in Irvington, New Jersey, Noyes became a member of the Women's Advisory Committee on Aeronautics. In August 1936, she was among a handful of leading aviatrices to join the Air Marking Group of the Bureau of Air Commerce, funded by the Works Progress Administration.[1][3] The group's objective was to aid aerial navigation by writing the name of the nearest town at 15-mile (24 km) intervals, on the roofs of prominent buildings if possible, on the ground in white paint when not.[9] With America's entry into World War II in December 1941, however, for security reasons the Noyes team had to black out the roughly 13,000 sites they had marked.[9][10] After the war, as head of the air marking division of the Civil Aeronautics Administration, she oversaw their restoration and added further navigational aids.[9] According to the National Air and Space Museum, "For many years, she was the only woman pilot allowed to fly a government aircraft."[3]
She also wrote numerous newspaper and magazine articles.[3]
She died on October 6, 1981 in Washington, D.C.[2][11]
Noyes was inducted into the Aviation Hall of Fame in 1970.[2] She was the first woman awarded a gold medal by the Commerce Department, for 35 years of government service improving air safety.[3][12]
References
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External links
- Photographs of Blanche Noyes at the Cleveland Memory Project, Cleveland State University Libraries.
