Elinor Smith
Encyclopedia
Elinor Smith was a pioneering American
aviatrix
, once known as "The Flying Flapper
of Freeport
". She was the first woman test pilot
for both Fairchild and Bellanca (now AviaBellanca
). She was the youngest licensed pilot in the world at 16.
and grew up in Freeport
, Long Island
, New York
. Her mother had been a professional singer, but had retired from performing when she got married. Her father was a comedian, singer and dancer. He toured extensively (including to Great Britain
and France
) in the role of the Scarecrow
in a stage production of The Wizard of Oz
and was a star of the Orpheum Circuit. He wrote his own material for his vaudeville act, and in the 1920s would go on to write comedy bits for Broadway
shows as well.
that took off from a potato patch near Hicksville
on her native Long Island. She immediately fell in love with flying, and took numerous rides that summer with the same French
pilot, Louis Gaubert. At the age of 10, she began receiving flying lessons from Clyde Pangborn
who tied blocks to the rudder pedals so Elinor’s feet could reach.
She received further lessons from Freddie Lund, who piloted her father around the country on the vaudeville circuit and was teaching him to fly as well, and from Bert Acosta. Her father bought a Waco 9
and hired "Red" Devereaux as a pilot and as a flight instructor for the two of them. Through all of this period, though, on her father's orders to her instructors, she was never given the opportunity to take off or land, because he was concerned for her safety. This prohibition was finally lifted by her mother while her father was out of town, and after ten days of intense instruction by Russ Holderman, she soloed for the first time at age 15. She began taking her father's Waco 9 up to higher altitudes than anyone had ever taken such a plane. (She would later write in her memoir, "I had no business fooling around up there without oxygen—and I knew it.") Word got around, and it was arranged for her to get a Fédération Aéronautique Internationale
(FAI) license and an FAI-certified barograph
. Orville Wright finalized her FAI license, and three months after she first soloed, she set an official light plane altitude record
of 11889 feet (3,623.8 m) in the Waco 9. In September 1927, at 16, she became the youngest U.S.-government-licensed pilot on record.
under all four of New York City
's East River
bridges; according to the Cradle of Aviation Museum, she is the only person ever to do so. By her own account at the time, she first reconnoitered the route from above the bridges; nonetheless, she had to dodge several ships. Although she did not know it in advance, newsreel crews were there to film her at each bridge: the Curtiss Field regulars had been betting heavily on whether or not she could really do it, and those who were betting on her side had alerted the media so that there would be clear evidence on film that it was, indeed, her at the controls of the plane. By her own account, the only sanction she received for the unauthorized stunt was a 10-day "grounding" by the city of New York, with Mayor James J. Walker interceding on her behalf to prevent any actual suspension of her license by the United States Department of Commerce
. A request for Elinor’s autograph accompanied the Department’s letter of reprimand.
Tom D. Crouch writes that she had her license suspended for 15 days. In any case, the stunt and her devil-may-care attitude made her a celebrity and helped to win her the "Flying Flapper" nickname.
flew for eight hours, six minutes. As far as Smith was concerned, all that did was to establish a tangible target, one that Red Devereaux said Smith could break "standing on [her] head." However, before Smith could finish her preparations, on January 2, 1929, Evelyn "Bobbi" Trout
, flying in California, upped the record to 12 hours. Under FAI rules, endurance records had to be broken by a full hour.
In late January 1929, it became clear that Gentry was ready to have another go at the record. In the depths of a rough New York winter, Smith judged that Roosevelt Field was in no state for a heavily loaded takeoff. With some difficulty, she obtained permission to use the military's nearby Mitchel Field
. On January 30, flying an open cockpit Bruner Winkle biplane
on a day when the temperature was 0 °F (-17.8 °C), Smith set a women's solo endurance record of 13½ hours. Her plan was to fly through the night and land in daylight: unbeknownst to those around her, although she had often landed at dusk she had never done a true night landing before. However, the effect of the cold and on both her body and that of her aircraft forced her down. By her own account, she managed to land with a heavy remaining load of fuel only due to the good fortune of being able to follow in Jimmy Doolittle
, who had seen her fire her Véry pistol. No one on the ground had seen the flare, so the runway lights had not been turned on. Upon landing she promised herself "never again to display this blend of incompetence and arrogance."
The next day, Gentry crashed on takeoff while attempting to better Smith's achievement; Gentry was unharmed, but her plane was damaged. Bobbi Trout took back the endurance record with a 17-hour flight on February 10–11, but three months later, in April 1929, Smith smashed that record, soloing 26½ hours in a Bellanca
CH monoplane
. That flight also made her the first woman ever to pilot such a large and powerful aircraft.
military aircraft. In June 1929 the parachute
-maker Irving Chute Co., hired her to tour the United States, flying a Bellanca Pacemaker
on a 6000 miles (9,656 km) tour of the United States, making the 18-year-old Smith the first female Executive Pilot. On this tour, at the air races in Cleveland
, Ohio
, she was the pilot for an unprecedented seven-man parachute drop.
) in Los Angeles
, she and Bobbi Trout (who functioned as co-pilot) set the first official women's record for endurance with mid-air refueling. They were aloft 42½ hours in a Sunbeam biplane powered by a 300-horsepower J-6 Wright engine. Smith did the contact flying while Trout handled the fueling hoses. Their refueling craft, a Curtiss Pigeon
with a Liberty L-12
engine, was piloted by Paul Whittier with Pete Reinhardt handling the hose. Smith and Trout were hoping for a record of at least 100 hours, and shooting for 164 hours (a week), but this was not to be. The two craft were not terribly well suited to the task at hand. The Pigeon was chosen for its large cargo capacity to carry fuel, but it was an outdated aircraft with a temperamental engine for which spare parts were not easily obtained. In refueling position, the Pigeon's pilot could not see the Sunbeam at all, so there was no way to signal about any engine problems that would mean sudden loss of altitude. The Sunbeam was not a notably stable aircraft: in Smith's words, "it had to be flown every single minute with the concentration of a test flight." Furthermore, the two craft were terribly mismatched in terms of velocity: whenever they were refueling, the Pigeon had to fly near its top speed while the Sunbeam slowed down to just above its stalling speed.
The first attempt at the record nearly ended in disaster around the 12-hour mark. During refueling near Catalina Island
, sudden turbulence wrested the hose from Trout's hands, covering her in airplane fuel, while at the other end of the hose Reinhardt was left bleeding from cuts. Both planes made it successfully back to Metropolitan Airport, and no one was seriously hurt. A series of additional attempts lasted between 10 and 18 hours; the weak link each time was keeping the Pigeon's engine running. Finally, in late November 1929, with the rainy season approaching, enough of the right factors fell into place to allow them to set a meaningful record, albeit a more modest one than they had originally intended. For completely unexplained reasons, the Sunbeam flew better than usual; the Pigeon's Liberty engine made it through 36 hours, although when it did fail it was dramatic, and forced the refueling craft into an emergency landing with its hose trailing. Smith and Trout flew the Sunbeam nearly dry, stretching their flight out to exactly 42½ hours.
broadcast interview shortly after that flight won her a position as a broadcaster covering the world of aviation, including live broadcasts from air shows and interviews with other prominent aviators. In May 1930, still before her 19th birthday, she became the youngest pilot ever granted a Transport License
by the U.S. Department of Commerce
. In October 1930 a poll of licensed pilots selected her as the "Best Woman Pilot in America".
In March 1931, flying out of Roosevelt Field on Long Island, she attempted to set the world altitude record, again flying a 6-seater Bellanca. Her altitude of 32576 feet (9,929.2 m) gave her back the women's record, and demonstrated the over-the-weather capability of the Bellanca, but fell just short of the overall world record. The flight nearly ended in calamity. Somewhere over 30000 feet (9,144 m) she lost consciousness, the fuel line froze, and the engine stalled out. The plane went into a glide. Smith regained consciousness at about 27000 feet (8,229.6 m), and managed to guide the plane in with an only intermittently useful engine.
scrubbed her hopes of a non-stop solo trans-Atlantic flight in a Lockheed Vega
, though she continued for several years to be a prominent stunt flyer, performing numerous fund-raisers for the homeless and needy. In 1934, Smith became the third person—and first woman—to be pictured on a Wheaties
box.
She met and married New York State legislator and attorney Patrick H. Sullivan, nephew of Tammany leader Timothy "Big Tim" Sullivan
. She kept flying for a while after their 1933 marriage, but once she had a child she retired from flying and spent over 20 years as a suburban housewife, ultimately bearing and raising four children.
Patrick Sullivan died in 1956, and Elinor Smith returned to the air. Her membership in the Air Force Association
allowed her to pilot the T-33 Shooting Star
Jet Trainer and to take up C-119s for paratroop maneuvers. In March 2000 at the Ames Research Center, Moffett Federal Airfield
, California
, as the pilot with an all-woman crew, she took on NASA
's Space Shuttle
vertical motion simulator, and became the oldest pilot to succeed in a simulated shuttle landing. In April 2001, at the age of 89, she flew an experimental C33 Raytheon
AGATE
, Beech Bonanza
at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia
.
Smith died on March 19, 2010, in Palo Alto, California
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
aviatrix
Aviator
An aviator is a person who flies an aircraft. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887, as a variation of 'aviation', from the Latin avis , coined in 1863 by G. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne...
, once known as "The Flying Flapper
Flapper
Flapper in the 1920s was a term applied to a "new breed" of young Western women who wore short skirts, bobbed their hair, listened to jazz, and flaunted their disdain for what was then considered acceptable behavior...
of Freeport
Freeport, New York
Freeport is a village in the town of Hempstead, Nassau County, New York, USA, on the South Shore of Long Island. The population was 42,860 at the 2010 census. A settlement since the 1640s, it was once an oystering community and later a resort popular with the New York City theater community...
". She was the first woman test pilot
Test pilot
A test pilot is an aviator who flies new and modified aircraft in specific maneuvers, known as flight test techniques or FTTs, allowing the results to be measured and the design to be evaluated....
for both Fairchild and Bellanca (now AviaBellanca
AviaBellanca Aircraft
AviaBellanca Aircraft Corporation is an American aircraft design and manufacturing company. Prior to 1983 it was known as the Bellanca Aircraft Company...
). She was the youngest licensed pilot in the world at 16.
Early life
Smith was born Elinor Regina Patricia Ward (her actor father changed his name to Tom Smith, thus she became Elinor Smith) in New York CityNew York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and grew up in Freeport
Freeport, New York
Freeport is a village in the town of Hempstead, Nassau County, New York, USA, on the South Shore of Long Island. The population was 42,860 at the 2010 census. A settlement since the 1640s, it was once an oystering community and later a resort popular with the New York City theater community...
, Long Island
Long Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. Her mother had been a professional singer, but had retired from performing when she got married. Her father was a comedian, singer and dancer. He toured extensively (including to Great Britain
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
and France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
) in the role of the Scarecrow
Scarecrow (Oz)
The Scarecrow is a character in the fictional Land of Oz created by American author L. Frank Baum and illustrator William Wallace Denslow. In his first appearance, the Scarecrow reveals that he lacks a brain and desires above all else to have one. In reality, he is only two days old and merely...
in a stage production of The Wizard of Oz
The Wizard of Oz (adaptations)
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is a 1900 novel by L. Frank Baum, which has been adapted into several different works, the most famous being the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland...
and was a star of the Orpheum Circuit. He wrote his own material for his vaudeville act, and in the 1920s would go on to write comedy bits for Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
shows as well.
Early flying experience
In 1918, at the age of six, along with her brother Joe, she took her first plane ride in a Farman pusherPusher configuration
In a craft with a pusher configuration the propeller are mounted behind their respective engine. According to Bill Gunston, a "pusher propeller" is one mounted behind engine so that drive shaft is in compression...
that took off from a potato patch near Hicksville
Hicksville, New York
Hicksville is a hamlet and census-designated place located within the Town of Oyster Bay in Nassau County, New York, United States. The population of the CDP was 41,547 at the 2010 census...
on her native Long Island. She immediately fell in love with flying, and took numerous rides that summer with the same French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
pilot, Louis Gaubert. At the age of 10, she began receiving flying lessons from Clyde Pangborn
Clyde Pangborn
Clyde Edward Pangborn also known as "Upside-Down Pangborn" was an American aviator who performed aerial stunts during the 1920s...
who tied blocks to the rudder pedals so Elinor’s feet could reach.
She received further lessons from Freddie Lund, who piloted her father around the country on the vaudeville circuit and was teaching him to fly as well, and from Bert Acosta. Her father bought a Waco 9
Waco 9
The Waco 9 is an American-built biplane design that first flew in 1925.-Development:The Waco 9 was the first of the steel-tubed fuselage aircraft designs to be built by the Advance Aircraft Company, which became the Waco Aircraft Company circa 1929...
and hired "Red" Devereaux as a pilot and as a flight instructor for the two of them. Through all of this period, though, on her father's orders to her instructors, she was never given the opportunity to take off or land, because he was concerned for her safety. This prohibition was finally lifted by her mother while her father was out of town, and after ten days of intense instruction by Russ Holderman, she soloed for the first time at age 15. She began taking her father's Waco 9 up to higher altitudes than anyone had ever taken such a plane. (She would later write in her memoir, "I had no business fooling around up there without oxygen—and I knew it.") Word got around, and it was arranged for her to get a Fédération Aéronautique Internationale
Fédération Aéronautique Internationale
The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale is the world governing body for air sports and aeronautics and astronautics world records. Its head office is in Lausanne, Switzerland. This includes man-carrying aerospace vehicles from balloons to spacecraft, and unmanned aerial vehicles...
(FAI) license and an FAI-certified barograph
Barograph
A barograph is a recording aneroid barometer. It produces a paper or foil chart called a barogram that records the barometric pressure over time....
. Orville Wright finalized her FAI license, and three months after she first soloed, she set an official light plane altitude record
Flight altitude record
These are the records set for going the highest in the atmosphere from the age of ballooning onward. Some records are certified by Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.-Fixed-wing aircraft:-Piston-driven propeller aeroplane:...
of 11889 feet (3,623.8 m) in the Waco 9. In September 1927, at 16, she became the youngest U.S.-government-licensed pilot on record.
Stunt flying under New York bridges
Up to this point, she and her family had deliberately kept publicity to a minimum, in order to allow her to hone her flying skills without the distraction of public attention. This would soon change. In mid-October 1928, on a dare, she flew a Waco 10Waco 10
-Bibliography:* http://aerofiles.com/_waco.html* Juptner, Joseph P. U.S. Civil Aircraft Vol. 1 Los Angeles, California: Aero Publishers, Inc., 1962. Library of Congress # 62-15967....
under all four of New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
's East River
East River
The East River is a tidal strait in New York City. It connects Upper New York Bay on its south end to Long Island Sound on its north end. It separates Long Island from the island of Manhattan and the Bronx on the North American mainland...
bridges; according to the Cradle of Aviation Museum, she is the only person ever to do so. By her own account at the time, she first reconnoitered the route from above the bridges; nonetheless, she had to dodge several ships. Although she did not know it in advance, newsreel crews were there to film her at each bridge: the Curtiss Field regulars had been betting heavily on whether or not she could really do it, and those who were betting on her side had alerted the media so that there would be clear evidence on film that it was, indeed, her at the controls of the plane. By her own account, the only sanction she received for the unauthorized stunt was a 10-day "grounding" by the city of New York, with Mayor James J. Walker interceding on her behalf to prevent any actual suspension of her license by the United States Department of Commerce
United States Department of Commerce
The United States Department of Commerce is the Cabinet department of the United States government concerned with promoting economic growth. It was originally created as the United States Department of Commerce and Labor on February 14, 1903...
. A request for Elinor’s autograph accompanied the Department’s letter of reprimand.
Tom D. Crouch writes that she had her license suspended for 15 days. In any case, the stunt and her devil-may-care attitude made her a celebrity and helped to win her the "Flying Flapper" nickname.
Endurance records
Numerous other feats followed close on. Until late 1928, there was no established women's flying endurance record; Smith decided to establish one, but was beaten to it. On December 20, Viola GentryViola Gentry
Viola Gentry was an American aviator, best known for setting the first non-refueling endurance record for women.-Early life:Gentry was born in Rockingham, North Carolina...
flew for eight hours, six minutes. As far as Smith was concerned, all that did was to establish a tangible target, one that Red Devereaux said Smith could break "standing on [her] head." However, before Smith could finish her preparations, on January 2, 1929, Evelyn "Bobbi" Trout
Bobbi Trout
Evelyn "Bobbi" Trout was an early female aviator notable for her pioneering flying activities. Trout began her aviation career at the age of 16 however her first solo flight and solo certificate was only given on April 30, 1928. In the spring of 1928, Trout’s mother bought her an International K-6...
, flying in California, upped the record to 12 hours. Under FAI rules, endurance records had to be broken by a full hour.
In late January 1929, it became clear that Gentry was ready to have another go at the record. In the depths of a rough New York winter, Smith judged that Roosevelt Field was in no state for a heavily loaded takeoff. With some difficulty, she obtained permission to use the military's nearby Mitchel Field
Mitchel Air Force Base
Decommissioned in 1961, Mitchel Field became a multi-use complex currently home to the Cradle of Aviation Museum, Nassau Coliseum, Mitchel Athletic Complex, Nassau Community College and Hofstra University.-Origins:...
. On January 30, flying an open cockpit Bruner Winkle biplane
Biplane
A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two superimposed main wings. The Wright brothers' Wright Flyer used a biplane design, as did most aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a biplane wing structure has a structural advantage, it produces more drag than a similar monoplane wing...
on a day when the temperature was 0 °F (-17.8 °C), Smith set a women's solo endurance record of 13½ hours. Her plan was to fly through the night and land in daylight: unbeknownst to those around her, although she had often landed at dusk she had never done a true night landing before. However, the effect of the cold and on both her body and that of her aircraft forced her down. By her own account, she managed to land with a heavy remaining load of fuel only due to the good fortune of being able to follow in Jimmy Doolittle
Jimmy Doolittle
General James Harold "Jimmy" Doolittle, USAF was an American aviation pioneer. Doolittle served as a brigadier general, major general and lieutenant general in the United States Army Air Forces during the Second World War...
, who had seen her fire her Véry pistol. No one on the ground had seen the flare, so the runway lights had not been turned on. Upon landing she promised herself "never again to display this blend of incompetence and arrogance."
The next day, Gentry crashed on takeoff while attempting to better Smith's achievement; Gentry was unharmed, but her plane was damaged. Bobbi Trout took back the endurance record with a 17-hour flight on February 10–11, but three months later, in April 1929, Smith smashed that record, soloing 26½ hours in a Bellanca
AviaBellanca Aircraft
AviaBellanca Aircraft Corporation is an American aircraft design and manufacturing company. Prior to 1983 it was known as the Bellanca Aircraft Company...
CH monoplane
Monoplane
A monoplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with one main set of wing surfaces, in contrast to a biplane or triplane. Since the late 1930s it has been the most common form for a fixed wing aircraft.-Types of monoplane:...
. That flight also made her the first woman ever to pilot such a large and powerful aircraft.
Speed record
The following month she set a woman's world speed record of 190.8 miles per hour (307.1 km/h) in a CurtissCurtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company
Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company was an American aircraft manufacturer that went public in 1916 with Glenn Hammond Curtiss as president. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, the company was the largest aircraft manufacturer in the United States...
military aircraft. In June 1929 the parachute
Parachute
A parachute is a device used to slow the motion of an object through an atmosphere by creating drag, or in the case of ram-air parachutes, aerodynamic lift. Parachutes are usually made out of light, strong cloth, originally silk, now most commonly nylon...
-maker Irving Chute Co., hired her to tour the United States, flying a Bellanca Pacemaker
Bellanca Pacemaker
The Pacemaker name was applied to a number of related Bellanca aircraft in the 1920s and 30s:* Bellanca CH-200 Pacemaker* Bellanca CH-300 Pacemaker* Bellanca 31-40 and 31-42 Pacemaker Senior* Bellanca 300W Pacemaker* Bellanca E Pacemaker...
on a 6000 miles (9,656 km) tour of the United States, making the 18-year-old Smith the first female Executive Pilot. On this tour, at the air races in Cleveland
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
, Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
, she was the pilot for an unprecedented seven-man parachute drop.
Endurance with mid-air refueling
Also in 1929, flying out of Metropolitan Airport (now Van Nuys AirportVan Nuys Airport
Van Nuys Airport is a public airport located in Van Nuys in the San Fernando Valley section of the city limits of Los Angeles, California, United States. No major commercial airlines fly into this airport; it is used by private, chartered, and small commercial aircraft...
) in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, she and Bobbi Trout (who functioned as co-pilot) set the first official women's record for endurance with mid-air refueling. They were aloft 42½ hours in a Sunbeam biplane powered by a 300-horsepower J-6 Wright engine. Smith did the contact flying while Trout handled the fueling hoses. Their refueling craft, a Curtiss Pigeon
Curtiss Carrier Pigeon
|-See also:-References:* Bowers, Peter M. Curtiss Aircraft 1907–1947. London:Putnam, 1979. ISBN 0-370-10029-8.* . Flight, April 16, 1925, pp. 228–229.* , Flight, November 26, 1925...
with a Liberty L-12
Liberty L-12
The Liberty L-12 was a 27 litre water-cooled 45° V-12 aircraft engine of 400 horsepower designed both for a high power-to-weight ratio and for ease of mass production.-History:...
engine, was piloted by Paul Whittier with Pete Reinhardt handling the hose. Smith and Trout were hoping for a record of at least 100 hours, and shooting for 164 hours (a week), but this was not to be. The two craft were not terribly well suited to the task at hand. The Pigeon was chosen for its large cargo capacity to carry fuel, but it was an outdated aircraft with a temperamental engine for which spare parts were not easily obtained. In refueling position, the Pigeon's pilot could not see the Sunbeam at all, so there was no way to signal about any engine problems that would mean sudden loss of altitude. The Sunbeam was not a notably stable aircraft: in Smith's words, "it had to be flown every single minute with the concentration of a test flight." Furthermore, the two craft were terribly mismatched in terms of velocity: whenever they were refueling, the Pigeon had to fly near its top speed while the Sunbeam slowed down to just above its stalling speed.
The first attempt at the record nearly ended in disaster around the 12-hour mark. During refueling near Catalina Island
Santa Catalina Island, California
Santa Catalina Island, often called Catalina Island, or just Catalina, is a rocky island off the coast of the U.S. state of California. The island is long and across at its greatest width. The island is located about south-southwest of Los Angeles, California. The highest point on the island is...
, sudden turbulence wrested the hose from Trout's hands, covering her in airplane fuel, while at the other end of the hose Reinhardt was left bleeding from cuts. Both planes made it successfully back to Metropolitan Airport, and no one was seriously hurt. A series of additional attempts lasted between 10 and 18 hours; the weak link each time was keeping the Pigeon's engine running. Finally, in late November 1929, with the rainy season approaching, enough of the right factors fell into place to allow them to set a meaningful record, albeit a more modest one than they had originally intended. For completely unexplained reasons, the Sunbeam flew better than usual; the Pigeon's Liberty engine made it through 36 hours, although when it did fail it was dramatic, and forced the refueling craft into an emergency landing with its hose trailing. Smith and Trout flew the Sunbeam nearly dry, stretching their flight out to exactly 42½ hours.
Altitude record
In March 1930 she added almost 1 miles (1.6 km) to the world altitude record, flying to a height of 27419 feet (8,357.3 m). Her articulate performance in an NBCNBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
broadcast interview shortly after that flight won her a position as a broadcaster covering the world of aviation, including live broadcasts from air shows and interviews with other prominent aviators. In May 1930, still before her 19th birthday, she became the youngest pilot ever granted a Transport License
Airline Transport Pilot License
The Airline Transport Pilot License , or in the United States of America, an Airline Transport Pilot Certificate is the highest level of aircraft pilot rating -- or license...
by the U.S. Department of Commerce
United States Department of Commerce
The United States Department of Commerce is the Cabinet department of the United States government concerned with promoting economic growth. It was originally created as the United States Department of Commerce and Labor on February 14, 1903...
. In October 1930 a poll of licensed pilots selected her as the "Best Woman Pilot in America".
In March 1931, flying out of Roosevelt Field on Long Island, she attempted to set the world altitude record, again flying a 6-seater Bellanca. Her altitude of 32576 feet (9,929.2 m) gave her back the women's record, and demonstrated the over-the-weather capability of the Bellanca, but fell just short of the overall world record. The flight nearly ended in calamity. Somewhere over 30000 feet (9,144 m) she lost consciousness, the fuel line froze, and the engine stalled out. The plane went into a glide. Smith regained consciousness at about 27000 feet (8,229.6 m), and managed to guide the plane in with an only intermittently useful engine.
Later years
The Great DepressionGreat Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
scrubbed her hopes of a non-stop solo trans-Atlantic flight in a Lockheed Vega
Lockheed Vega
|-See also:-References:NotesCitationsBibliography* Allen, Richard Sanders. Revolution in the Sky: Those Fabulous Lockheeds, The Pilots Who Flew Them. Brattleboro, Vermont: The Stephen Greene Press, 1964....
, though she continued for several years to be a prominent stunt flyer, performing numerous fund-raisers for the homeless and needy. In 1934, Smith became the third person—and first woman—to be pictured on a Wheaties
Wheaties
Wheaties is a brand of General Mills breakfast cereal. It is well known for featuring prominent athletes on the exterior of the package, and has become a major cultural icon...
box.
She met and married New York State legislator and attorney Patrick H. Sullivan, nephew of Tammany leader Timothy "Big Tim" Sullivan
Timothy Sullivan
Timothy Daniel Sullivan was a New York politician who controlled Manhattan's Bowery and Lower East Side districts as a prominent figure within Tammany Hall. He was euphemistically known as "Dry Dollar", as the "Big Feller", and, later, as "Big Tim"...
. She kept flying for a while after their 1933 marriage, but once she had a child she retired from flying and spent over 20 years as a suburban housewife, ultimately bearing and raising four children.
Patrick Sullivan died in 1956, and Elinor Smith returned to the air. Her membership in the Air Force Association
Air Force Association
The Air Force Association is an independent, 501 non-profit, civilian education organization, headquartered in Arlington, Virginia...
allowed her to pilot the T-33 Shooting Star
T-33 Shooting Star
The Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star is an American-built jet trainer aircraft. It was produced by Lockheed and made its first flight in 1948, piloted by Tony LeVier. The T-33 was developed from the Lockheed P-80/F-80 starting as TP-80C/TF-80C in development, then designated T-33A. It was used by the...
Jet Trainer and to take up C-119s for paratroop maneuvers. In March 2000 at the Ames Research Center, Moffett Federal Airfield
Moffett Federal Airfield
Moffett Federal Airfield , also known as Moffett Field, is a joint civil-military airport located between northern Mountain View and northern Sunnyvale, California, USA. The airport is near the south end of San Francisco Bay, northwest of San Jose. Formerly a United States Navy facility, the former...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, as the pilot with an all-woman crew, she took on NASA
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...
's Space Shuttle
Space Shuttle
The Space Shuttle was a manned orbital rocket and spacecraft system operated by NASA on 135 missions from 1981 to 2011. The system combined rocket launch, orbital spacecraft, and re-entry spaceplane with modular add-ons...
vertical motion simulator, and became the oldest pilot to succeed in a simulated shuttle landing. In April 2001, at the age of 89, she flew an experimental C33 Raytheon
Raytheon
Raytheon Company is a major American defense contractor and industrial corporation with core manufacturing concentrations in weapons and military and commercial electronics. It was previously involved in corporate and special-mission aircraft until early 2007...
AGATE
Advanced General Aviation Transport Experiments
The Advanced General Aviation Transport Experiments project was a consortium of NASA, the FAA, the general aviation industry and a number of universities which was shut down in December 2001. Its goal was to create a Small Aviation Transportation System as an alternative to short-range automotive...
, Beech Bonanza
Beechcraft Bonanza
The Beechcraft Bonanza is an American general aviation aircraft introduced in 1947 by The Beech Aircraft Corporation of Wichita, Kansas. , it is still being produced by Hawker Beechcraft, and has been in continuous production longer than any other airplane in history...
at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
.
Smith died on March 19, 2010, in Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto, California
Palo Alto is a California charter city located in the northwest corner of Santa Clara County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, United States. The city shares its borders with East Palo Alto, Mountain View, Los Altos, Los Altos Hills, Stanford, Portola Valley, and Menlo Park. It is...
.