INTRO Chicago The World’s Flying Capital
The member of a famous early aviation family, Katherine Stinson went to Chicago to learn how to fly. She was the fourth woman in the U.S. to obtain a pilot’s license. Her brother Eddie Stinson became an influential airplane manufacturer, and her sister Marjorie conducted a flight school. Katherine Stinson flew a Curtiss JN-4D “Jennie” on exhibition flights for the Red Cross during World War I and even set a Canadian distance and endurance record before the end of the war.
Katherine Stinson, 1913
Inter Ocean, August 20, 1911
After coming all the way from Jackson, Miss. to buy an aeroplane, Miss Katherine Stinson, an 18 year old girl who has decided to become an aviatrice, will get her first opportunity to ride in an aeroplane today.
All during the present meet she has beer trying to get permission to make an ascent but this the committee in charge with it: usual affability has consistently refused. This evening after seven o’clock together with MIss Helen Bernard, a Chicago girl. who Intends to fly with Miss Stinson in ber new plane, she will make an ascent with Oscar A. Brindley. the young aviator who either did or did not break the world’s record for altitude Friday.
Miss Stinson has been a pupil at the Kansas City Aeronautic school for the past few weeks. As the school there, however, had nothing but “gliders,” small aeroplanes without motors, she came to Chicago to buy a real aeroplane and make arrangements to learn to fly it.
She has had a great deal of automobile experience, having driven nearly one hundred thousand miles over rough roads of the south. She began driving motor cars at an early age and is an expert on gasoline engine practice or as she expresses it “I was raised on gasoline and cylinder oll instead of milk.”
For a time she was content to drive a big racing car at high speed over country roads, fioding plenty of thrills In this, but after a time this palled upon her and she longed for more worlds to conquer. After seeing the aero meet at New Orleans she decided to purchase and fly an aeroplane.
As the is an heiress in her own right, Miss Stinson had no one to oppose her taking up the dangerous pastime and started to flying in gliders. This summer she decided that she was ready to operate an aeroplane with a motor in it.
“I am just crazy to fly,” she said. “It is the greatest sensation imaginable to go skimming along the ground in a glider, but then you can only go a little way ia one of them. I want to get a machine that I can go for miles in.
“Mr. Brindley is going to take me up In his machine. so that I can see how I like it. I don’t know which I want, a bi-plaue or a monoplane. I am going up with Mr. Simon, too, and then I can tell which one I like the best.”
Chicago Tribune, April 28, 1912
Within two weeks a half dozen aviators will be practicing daily at the Cicero flying field of the Aero Club of Illinois, in preparation for the western championship events at the field June 8.
Max Lillie (Lilgenstrand), St. Louis aviator, spent several hours in the puffy air yesterday. In the late afternoon he took up passenger Miss Katherine Stimson (sic) of Jackson, Miss., a 17 year old girl who is desirous of becoming an aviatrice.
Girl Works the Levers.
Lillie, who has given the girl a course of lessons in “grass cutting,” took her about 1,000 feet in the air, showed her the left and right bank, and how to land.
“She worked the levers all by herself for a while,” Lillie said when they had landed, “She is going to make a fine little flyer.”
Miss Stimson said she wants to be an aviatrice so she can make a lot of money in a hurry. She wants to study singing in Paris.
The top picture shows Max Lillie and Katherine Stimson starting on 1,000 foot ascension in airship at Cicero field, the bottom one they are just leaving the ground on the girl’s first trip in the air.
Display advertisement for Lillie’s School, Aerial Age, June, 1912.
Inter Ocean July 15, 1912
Officials of the Aero Club of Illinois yesterday examined from an aeroplane the sites suggested for holding the Gordon Bennett world’s championship aeroplane race, in an effort finally to decide which would be most suited to the 100 mile an hour racers who will compete in that event. They were carried over the fields by Aviator Max Lillie. Later Miss Katherine Stinson became the first qualified woman aeroplane pilot to qualify on the second aeroplane ever made, the Wright biplane.
Miss Stenson Pioneer of All.
Miss Stinson finished her pilot tests by an altitude flight. The figures eight required were run off the day before, but there was no height registering instrument at the field and the altitude trial had to be postponed. She passed it easily, reaching 500 feet. Miss Stinson is the first woman to win a license on the Wright biplane, the pioneer of all, and by reason of the retirement Miss Mathilda Moissant and the death of Harriet Quimby and Julia Clark, is now the only American girl who is a licensed pilot. She won her brevet on the biplane of Maqx Lillie, her instructor. She expects to go to Dayton this week and bring back a new Wright for her own use.
Chicago Tribune, July 16, 1912
Katherine Stinson—bird girl who learned to fly in Chicago—is the youngest aviator, man or woman, in the world since she passed all the international tests Sunday at Cicero flying field of the Aero Club of Illinois. She is just past her 18th birthday. Miss Stinson is from Jackson, Miss.
Chicago Tribune, July 18, 1915
Nearly two thousand men and women at Cicero field were furnished with a thrill not on the program yesterday when Miss Katherine Stinson, aviatrix, fell 8,000 feet in her biplane after an accident to the gasoline valve. She finally righted her machine, however, and made a safe landing.
Miss Stinson, according to her press agent, is the only woman who has looped the loop, and was giving an exhibition when the accident occurred.1 Three times she had “turned turtle” when the frail craft was some 4,000 feet up, and the crowd that had gathered felt they had obtained their money’s worth.
On the fourth loop, however, the strain proved too much. The gasoline valve snapped and the purr of the engine was hushed. Nose downward, the machine dashed toward the earth, and hundreds turned away to avoid the impending tragedy. The planes, however, were suddenly inclined and the safe landing effected. Attendants ran to Miss Stinson, who was so weak she had to be assisted to her dressing room.
- It was the most dreadful fright I ever experienced. The horror of the silence after that motor stopped will stay with me all my life. I didn’t know what to do for just a moment. Then I began to fall. I knew it would be fatal if the machine ever lost its balance. So I just turned its nose straight down and asked God to help me.
Did you ever fall 3,000 feet? Well, it feels like you have fallen 4,000 miles. The time is an eternity. I was so weak when I felt the wheels begin to roll over the field that all I could do was lie back in my seat. I would have fallen if I attempted to stand. I would have cried if I had opened my mouth.
But that experience hasn’t taken my nerve. I’m going to loop the loop again, and then I’m a going to execute the ‘death drop.’ And this time I am going to do it on purpose.
Miss Stinson learned to fly in 1911. She is a pupil of Max Lillie, who fell to his death at Galesburg, Ill.
Aviatrix Katherine Stinson racing the 1916 Indy 500 champion Dario Resta
Chicago Tribune, February 17, 1916
For twenty minutes last night Chicagoans watched and marveled at an outlaw comet tracing crazy patterns of fire among the orderly stars. The phenom-enon, though a mystery to outraged citizens afar from the loop. who are used to a properly conducted firmament, was clear enough to the crowd in Grant park and along Michigan boulevard.
They knew the comet was an aeroplane and its reckless guiding spirit a woman showing off a sample from the infinity of her variety.
Girl from Texas.
Miss Katherine Stinson of San Antonio, Tex., performed one of the most spectacular night tights ever seen in Chicago. with her machine leaving yellow streamers from the burning magnesium pots she spent twenty minutes above Grant park, sketching a dizzy assortment of loops as serenely as if she never heard of specific gravity and the hard earth which invariably stops the longest fall.
Miss Stinson used, a military biplane, driven (so the press agent solemnly avers) by the same motor that Lincoln Beachey used in his death flight. She started from the north end of Grant park and climbed rapidly on an ambitious angle. Her course was clearly marked by the magnesium flares.
Dips 1,000 Feet.
At a height of 2,500 feet Miss Stinson executed a double reverse loop. When her machine righted she sailed for the Black-stone hotel and executed another loop at with a tremendous perimeter. She followed this with a straight pitch earth-sward of nearly 1,000 feet, easily the most thrilling movement in her mad soiree.
A gasp went up from the thousands assembled in Grant park and Michigan boulevard, and hearts sickened as it seemed certain tragedy would close the performance. Then the girl aviator, within a hundred feet of the boulevard, wrenched the biplane parallel to the earth, and, taking a fresh start, climbed again for one more loop, after which she landed.
Miss Katherine Stinson and a new Curtiss JN-4D “Jenny” aeroplane in 1917.
Chicago Tribune, May 12, 1918
Miss Katherine Stinson, Chicago’s first woman postal aviatrix, was sworn in yesterday as a postal clerk and tomorrow morning, weather conditions permitting, she will start from Grant Park on her first official mail carry. ing trip to New York.
Miss Stinson was regularly sworn in by Assistant Postmaster Thomas F. McGrath. On her first trip as an. aerial mail carrier she will deliver a number of specially addressed letters. It is expected the trip will require about eleven hours.
One of the letters to be delivered will be that from Postmaster Carlile to Postmaster Patten of New York, congratulating Mr. Patten upon the progress made in mail transportation by air.
Miss Stinson’s trip will be followed by the issuance of a new 24 cent stamp to be used for aviation mail. Although the stamp is to be issued primarily for letters sent by airplane, it can also be used for any mall requiring stamps to that value.
The new stamp will carry the picture of a mail airplane.1
Chicago Tribune, May 13, 1918
Miss Stinson Postpones Aerial Postal Carrying
Miss Katherine Stinson, who was to start from Grant park on a trip to New York this morning, carrying mail as Chicago’s first woman postal aviatrix, last night postponed indefinitely her proposed flight because of unfavorable weather conditions.
New York Times, May 24, 1918
Binghamton, N. Y.. May 23.-Katherine Stinson, who left Chicago this morning with Government mail for New York, landed two miles north of this city at 6:50 this evening. She met with an accident while attempting a landing, the machine turning turtle just as it reached the ground. The propeller was smashed and one of the wings damaged. Miss Stinson was uninjured.
Having covered the 78 miles from Chicago to this city in ten hours, Miss Stinson bettered the distance made by Ruth Law in her record-breaking flight in the Pall of 1916 by about nine miles. She circled the city in search of a sultable landing place, and finally picked out a small plateau on a high hill north of the city. A strong wind added to the difficulties of the landing.
Hundreds of automobiles raced to the landing place and help was at hand soon after the plane came to a stop. Miss Stinson directed the work of righting the machine, apparently none the worep for her mishap.
Although keenly disappointed because of her failure to reach the metropolis, Miss Stinson was elated at having smashed two American records, one for distance and another, held by herself, for endurance.
Will Complete Trip Today.
After being brought by automobilists to a hotel here, she stated that repairs to her plane will be made during the night, and that sho will he ready to resume her journev to New York at 8 o’clock in the morning. A new propeller will be forwarded from Elmira, and the slight damage to the machine will be repaired by local machinists.
The previous distance record, Miss Stinson stated. was held by Bounds, an American aviator. This was for 100 miles without a stop. She bettered this record by eighty-three miles today. The endurance record established by Miss Stinson in her flight from San Diego to San Francisco, on Dec. 11 of last year, was bettered by her performance of today by one hour and five minutes.
Miss Ruth Law’s flight over the same route two years ago to Binghamton, Miss Stinson pointed out, was not a non-stop flight. Miss Law having landed before reaching this city.
Lack of gas forced her to land here, Miss Stinson explained. She decided to land on the side hill because it had a level appearance and she thought that the drainage would be sufficient to remove any danger of mud. In this she miscalculated, for the muddy soil proved her undoing. The wheels of the plane became imbedded and this caused it to topple over.
“You may tell the mothers of any young man in the flying service for me that there is no necessity for them to worry about their boys,’ Miss Stinson stated. “My flight today proves that long distances may be covered with little danger.”
Interviewers were forced to shout their question to the aviatrix because the roar of the motor during her long period in the air had rendered her almost deaf.
Left Chicago at 7:37 A.M.
Special to The New York Times.
CHICAGO, May 23.-Katherine Stinson left from Grant Park at 7:87 this morning unanaunced. In addition to sixty-one letters she carried a mesgago from Frank O. Wetmore, Chairman of the Red Cross campaign here, to Secretary McAdoo, telling of the success of the drive in this city. Miss Stinson said she expected to arrive at Garden City, Long Island, about 8:30 in the evening.
Her rations for the flight consisted of three handfuls of malted milk tablets. In waving farewell to Captains Richard Poillon and L. A. Donahue or aviation headquarters, she remarked, “One handful is my breakfast, one is my luncheon, and the third is my dinner.”
Miss Stinson’s start was made after more than a week’s delay. First, she was required to obtain a special permit from the War Department, and then she had to be sworn in as a special Post Office messenger. These “commissions” were received yesterday.
The morning was perfect for the flight. Miss Stinson was swathed in woolens and leather when she took the air. The only persons to see her leave were Postmaster Carlisle and a few invited guests.
When on Nov. 20, 1916, Miss Ruth Law glided her obsolete 100-horse power “pusher” airplane to a landing on Governors Island after a flight from Chicago, it was announced that she had established an American non-stop cross country record, the world’s record for women, and the second best world cross country non-stop record. Miss Law left Chicago at 8:28 A. M. (Eastern time) and reached Hornell, N. Y., 2:11 P. M., a distance of 600 miles from Chicago. She remained in Hornell just one hour and fourteen minutes and took to the air again, making Binghamton, ninety miles further, at 4:20 P. M. She spent the night there and the next morning started away again at 7:23, and at 9:37 landed on Governors Island.
In making the non-stop trip to Hornell Miss Law broke the non-stop cross-country record that had just been made in the first Chicago- New York flight for The New York Times by the late Victor Carlstrom, who flew from Chicago to Erie, Penn., a distance of 454 miles.
Carlstrom was forced to interrupt what was a record trip because of a leak in a gasoline pipe.
The only aviator said to havo flown further than Miss Law was Sub-Lieutenant A. Marchal of the French Army. who on June 20 and 21 last flew from Nancy, France to Chelm, Poland, a distance of 812.5 miles.
Miss Law had mapped out her course carefully. She was forced to alight at Hornell because of lack of fuel and as soon as her tanks were refilled she look to the air again. In describing the flight from Binghamton to Goverrors Island Miss Law said that she was coming down the Hudson, opposite the city, when her engine began to miss fire, warning her that, her gasoline supply was becoming exhausted. Instead of coming down she used what fuel she had to go higher and when at a sufficient height she shut off the power and slid down the air to a safe landing on the island.
There was considerable disappointment at the aviation field here when it was learned that Miss Stinson had met with an accident near Binghamton. About 6 o’clock a few of the aviators were flying about the field waiting for the expected arrival of the young aviatrix. They remained aloft for an hour or more, when word was received of her delay and they returned to the field.
Postmaster McDermott of Hempstead was at the field to receive the mail which Miss Stinson is carrying, and will return tomorrow if the trip is to be continued.
Newsreel of Katherine Stinson.
Edmonton Journal, July 10, 1918
In the bright lexicon of youth there is no such word as “fall,” and Miss Katherine Stinson, America’s youngest avlatrix, in the face of handicaps that would have deterred almost any bird-man from making the trip, successfully accomplished her non-stop flight from Calgary to Edmonton In 125 minutes actual flying time. Leaving Calgary exhibition grounds at 1.08 Miss Stinson proceeded swimmmgly untll about nine miles on her journey when her engine started to show signs of distress and she was forced to alight at a small | station called Beddington.
It was some time before Miss Stinson could get into communication with Cal-gary, owing to the absence of a telegraph office at her unpremeditated point of call, but she flnally succeeded in reaching Manager Ernie Richardson of the Calgary exhibition, and her me-chanicians were dispatched to the scene of trouble in an automobile.
Meanwhile the news of engine trouble had reached the Edmonton grounds where an expectant crowd filled the grand stand and enclosure awaiting Miss Stinson’s arrival. All but her staunchest supporters gave up hopes of seeing the first aerial mail service in the history of western Canada Instituted yes-terday, but the doubting Thomases reckoned without their host.
Mechanics Repalr Engine
Meanwhile at Bedington, which was all agog with excitement at seeing a real aeroplane, the mechanics were hastily overhauling the engine, and late in the afternoon it was pronounced ready for service. Wishing to keep her record intact, Miss Stinson flew back to Calgary, and again set out on her 196 mile journey, eager to add a new non-stop record to those already credited her.
About 7.30 p.m. the news began to be noised about the grounds that the aviatrix was safely on her way. The exhibition management was kept posted of her progress by the C. P. R.’s excellent bulletin service, and as Red | Deer, Lacombe, Wetaskiwin, Millet and Leduc were passed in quick succession, the crowd got a very good idea of the speed at which Miss Stinson’s plane was travelling. In the meantime the crowd started to crane Its collective necks, and finally a cry of “Here she comes” arose | from the infield of the enclosure. FlyIng as true as an arrow the bird-like figure hove Into sight from the south, and it was only a few minutes before the whirling of the propeller could be easily heard. Flying at a great height Miss Stinson gracefully circled the grounds, coming down by easy stages until in a favorable position to land against the wind.
Landed at 8:03 p.m.
Finally everything was in shape for the landing and at 8.03 p.m. Miss Stinson came to earth about the centre of the infield, the plane speeding along the ground and being brought to a stop just before it collided with the eastern fence of the race track. There was a rush to greet the plucky flyer, but in the hundred yards’ dash Manager W. J. Stark, of the exhibition, and Miss Stinson’s manager, J. Alex. Sloan, ran a dead heat. A resonant cheer arose from the stand and from the midway crowd who dashed to the fence at her arrival and looking none the worse for her long trip, the new western Canada record-holder waved greetings to her Edmonton friends.
George S. Armstrong, postmaster of Edmonton, was on hand to receive the bag of mail sent by aerial route to this city, and Miss Stinson also conveyed greetings from Acting-Mayor Freeze of Calgary to H. M. E. Evans, chief magistrate of this city. Congratulations were handed the plucky girl by Lleuts. Koch and Brighton of the Royal Flying corps, home on furlough after being wounded, and several photographs were taken.
Cheered by the Crowd
At the platform in front of the grand stand Miss Stinson was introduced to the crowd by J. Alex. Sloan, as the new holder of the western Canada record for an endurance and also non-stop flight, and greeted with hearty cheers. The distance was traversed in two hours and five minutes’ actual flying time, and 259 letters were conveyed by the finst aerial mail service ever utilized in Canada. Using maps and compass, and bearing a permit from the dominion government to fly in Alberta, Migg Stinson followed the C. and B. line of the C. P. R., her progress being duly recorded by every station boasting a teiegraph instrument.
During her stay in the city she will be the guest of the Edmonton Women’s Press club today at luncheon, and may possibly make an exhibition flight before the exhibition terminates. Arrangements have also been made for Miss Stinson to take part in the automobile races on Saturday afternoon, as in addition to being an accomplished aviatrix, she is equally at home behind the steering wheel of a racing machine.
Records are nothing new in Miss Stinson’s young life for she previously held endurance records for women, in addition to the long distance record for the feminine sex. Her long distance non-stop record was set in a flight from Chicago to Binghampton, New York, a distance of 783 miles which she traversed in 10 hours and 23 minutes. She then resumed her journey, flying from Binghampton to Sheepshead Bay speedway, 215 miles, in 205 minutes. Previously Miss Stinson had also been the holder of this same record, making the mark on the Pacific coast where she flew from San Diego to San Fran-cisco, a distance of 614 ralles, beating Miss Ruth Law’s best performance by thirty miles.
Stinson Fleld, San Antone
It is interesting to note that Miss Stinson has trained many Canadian flyers for the air service, one of her pupils being Flight Lieutenant Joe Gorman, formerly sporting editor of the Victoria Times, who was killed on the Italian front. Her brother Eddie Stinson is now an instructor in the United States aviation corps with headquarters at Kelly Field, San Antonio, and the old Stinson flying grounds have been taker over by the government, although the aerodrome is still known as Stinson field.
New York Times, November 4, 1936
Santa Fe, N. M. (P).- The feminine hand that two decades ago rocked the cradle of aviation in its infancy is designing prize-winning homes in New Mexico.
For Katherine Stinson Otero, once one of America’s most daring feminine aviators, who designed some of her own planes, is a leading architect of the Southwest, building homes she “likes so much” that she “wants to live in them” herself.
As the comely wife of Judge Miguel A. Otero Jr., a World War aviator who ran for the United States Senate on the Republican ticket, she prefers to stay out of the public eye. These two, who helped to write aviation history, have pledged each other never to sit again at the controls of an airplane.
Yet twenty years ago Miss Katherine’ Stinson, a mere slip of a girl, tucked long curls under a helmet, buttoned a coat around her gingham dress and, with the 148th license of the International. Aeronautical Federation jammed into a pocket, took off on a barnstorming tour of the nation.
Charming hostess, efficient mistress of the Otero hacienda, contractor and architect, the Mrs. Otero of today gives little hint of Katherine Stinson’s thrilling years at the controls of flying “crates.”
She went to Chicago from her home in Jackson, Miss., in 1912 to have Max Lilienstrand teach her how to fly.
Soon she was barnstorming, and in 1915 an awed Los Angeles watched her write “Cal.” in the sky one night with torches on her plane’s wingtips.
Incorporating some of her own ideas, she built a plane around the motor salvaged from the ship in which Lincoln Beachey, stunt flier, crashed to his death. In it she flew to the Orient in 1916 and 1917, so impressing the President of China that he gave her his personal check for several thousand dollars.
With her famous brother, Eddie Stinson, and a sister, Marjorie, she opened a flying school in San Antonio, Texas, before the United States entered the World War. There a number of American and Canadian aces received their early training.
Answering the call of the air again, she offered to pursue Pancho Villa, the Mexican. The offer was spurned. Next she sought to fly combat in the World War. Again she was rebuffed.
She found thrills, however, flying over the nation in behalf of Liberty Bonds issues and Red Cross Bad drives! On one occasion she “picked up” $2,000,000 in a collection flight for the Red Cross.
In 1918 she went to France as a Red Cross ambulance driver after she had made the first regular mail route flight between New York and Washington over what was then an unchartered course.
Here she met Otero, son of one of the State’s best known territorial Governors. In 1927 they married. That year their home, which Mrs. Otero had designed, was judged the prize-winner in a contest embracing typical Santa Fé architecture. She also won a prize in 1927 for the best plans of a house costing less than $6,000.
Chicago Tribune, July 10, 1977
‘Flying schoolgirl’ Stinson dead at 86
Santa Fe, N.M. (AP)-Katherine Stinson Otero, 86, a pioneer in the nation’s aviation history, died Friday in her home here after a long illness.
She was widely publicized as the flying schoolgirl when- she began barnstorming in 1913. She was the fourth woman to qualify for a pilot’s license, which she received in 1912 at Cicero Field in Chicago.
She began flying for the government in 1918, when, as the “bird woman,” she inaugurated airmail service between Chicago and New York City. She was the first woman to fly alone at night and is believed to be the first pilot to skywrite.
She is survived by her husband, Miguel A. Otero Jr. She never flew again after her marriage in 1928.
NOTES:
1The 1918 Curtiss Jenny Air Mail Stamps were a set of three Airmail postage stamps issued by the United States in 1918. The 24¢ variety was the first of the stamps to be issued, and was in fact, America’s first Airmail stamp. It was issued on May 13, 1918. The 16¢ variety was issued on July 11, 1918 and the 6¢ variety on December 10, 1918.
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