MANAGEMENT IN AVIATION HISTORY BENCH MARKS
Life-threatening emergencies plagued nearly every pilot during the remaining week of the derby. More than one emergency was resolved by hands-on maintenance in a remote fi eld. Disaster was also occasionally avoided by sheer luck. Along the way, lost and seeking
The Route Map for the 2016 Air Race Classic, June 21 – July 24 (
www.airraceclassic.org)
She married Herbert Von Thaden that same yer. The bride entered the 1929 derby with her new name, Louise Thaden. Thaden’s blue and gold Travel Air 4000 was powered by a J5 Wright engine, to be kept in top condition along the course by John Q. Burke, a mechanic for the Travel Air Company. Thaden called him “Johnny.”
ENDURANCE AND LOSS Beginning in California on Aug. 18, 1929, the derby route crossed Arizona, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, and Indiana and ended in Ohio on Aug. 26, 1929. After few hours of sleep, the derby entrants rose at dawn to confer with their mechanics and test their machines. Headed toward pre- determined locations, pilots were required to fl y by dead reckoning over terrain for which there was often no road map. Their next fuel or overnight stop was often found by following geographical landmarks or railroad tracks. Earhart rightfully observed that the organizers had not provided enough personnel to guard their aircraft, nor had they chosen well-maintained landing fi elds.
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DOMmagazine.com | march 2016 On the fi rst leg, “Pancho” Barnes
followed railroad tracks in the wrong direction and landed in Mexico instead of Yuma, AZ. The landing strip at Yuma was soft desert sand unfavorable for high performance aircraft. Earhart’s Vega sank into the dusty earth nose fi rst but without signifi cant damage. Each evening the ladies were greeted by local citizens eager to honor them at a dinner. While they ate and slept, their mechanics arrived in time to do maintenance work before the next day’s start. It was a rigorous schedule which soon took its toll. Seasoned Alaskan bush pilot
Marvel Crosson went missing en route from Yuma to Phoenix. Thaden and her fellow competitors learned that Crosson was found dead near her crashed Travel Air, wearing an unopened parachute. Crosson had reported earlier troubles with an overheated engine but the actual cause of the crash has never been determined. The chilling potential for sabotage entered the minds of all. Thaden later wrote, “We women pilots were blazing a new trail. Each promising eff ort must bow to death.”
directions to Tulsa, OK, Elder landed in pasture amid a herd of agitated cows. That evening while among her fellow competitors, she breathlessly confessed relief that her bright red Swallow aircraft had not attracted a bull for fear it would poke holes in the fuselage. Thaden described the airport in
Pecos, TX, as a narrow dirt landing strip “hastily cleared of mesquite and sage brush.” Nevertheless, 3,000 people came out to greet the women fl iers. Barnes crashed into a spectator’s car when it crossed her landing path. Although she walked away, her Travel Air suff ered the loss of both wings and a wheel. Noyes made an emergency landing en route as an in-fl ight fi re spread to the cockpit of her Travel Air. When she could not dislodge the fi re extinguisher from its brackets, she used dirt to smother the fl ames. Scalded and covered in soot and dirt, Noyes tearfully related her harrowing experience to Thaden and the rest of the competitors that evening. The cause of the fi re was speculated to have been a mechanic’s cigarette unintentionally dropped into the luggage behind her seat. Others did not rule out sabotage. Under such stress Thaden observed that “Women usually cry, and men go out and get drunk.” Noyes was back in the race the next morning.
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