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Daughter of the sky

Chapter 46: RECORD FLIGHTS
By Jr. Paul L. Briand
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Biographies

About This Book

The narrative traces the life and career of a pioneering aviator, following restless youth and early encounters with flight through her evolution into a record-setting pilot. It covers training, competitive events, solo and long-distance crossings, and the activist and instructional roles she assumed, alongside personal relationships that shaped public life. The book chronicles the planning and execution of a final circumnavigational attempt and the disappearance that launched extensive searches and speculation. Interwoven themes include courage, independence, the obstacles women faced in a male-dominated field, and the tension between public celebrity and private solitude.

1928, June 17: The first woman to fly across the Atlantic as a passenger; with Wilmer Stultz pilot and Lou Gordon mechanic; in the pontoon-equipped Fokker trimotor airplane; from Trepassey, Newfoundland, to Burryport, Wales; time: 20 hours and 40 minutes.

1929, August 24: Third place in the first Women’s Air Derby Race; from Santa Monica, California, to Cleveland, Ohio.

1930, July 6: Women’s speed record; three-kilometer course; at 181.18 mph.

1931, April 8: World’s altitude record for autogiros; at 18,451 feet; in Pitcairn autogiro.

1932, May 20–21: First woman to fly solo across the Atlantic; from Harbor Grace, Newfoundland, to Londonderry, Ireland; time: 14 hours and 56 minutes.

1932, August 24–25: Women’s non-stop transcontinental speed record; from Los Angeles, California, to Newark, New Jersey; 2,447.8 miles; time: 19 hours and 5 minutes.

1933, July 7–8: Broke her own transcontinental speed record of the year before; in her Lockheed Vega; from Los Angeles, California, to Newark, New Jersey; time: 17 hours, 7 minutes, and 30 seconds.

1935, January 11–12: First to fly solo from Honolulu, Hawaii, to Oakland, California; in her Lockheed Vega; 2,408 miles; time: 18 hours and 16 minutes.

1935, April 19–20: First to fly solo from Los Angeles, California, to Mexico City, Mexico; in her Lockheed Vega; time: 13 hours and 23 minutes.

1935, May 8: Solo flight from Mexico City to Newark, New Jersey; time: 14 hours and 19 minutes.

1937, March 17–18: Flight from Oakland, California, to Honolulu, Hawaii; in Lockheed Electra.

1937, July 3: Record flight around the world at the equator; with navigator Fred J. Noonan; in Lockheed Electra; covered a distance of 22,000 miles, until strange disappearance over the Pacific somewhere between Lae, New Guinea, and Howland Island.