Page 28 - August 2015 Volume 9, Number 8

In 1929, Thaden added to her fame by winning the inaugural Women’s Air Derby that was part of the National Air Races that year. She flew her Travel Air Model D4000 equipped with speed wings from Oakland, California, to Cleveland, Ohio. (EDWARD H. PHILLIPS COLLECTION)
Louise and Blanche’s flight adventure had begun a month earlier when Walter Beech decided to enter a new Beechcraft in the nation’s premier, free-for-all speed dash from coast-to-coast. In 1931, the inaugural Bendix event was won by James H. “Jimmy” Doolittle flying a Laird Super Solution biplane. The race remained a male- only event until 1936 when officials finally (and perhaps reluctantly) agreed to allow female pilots to compete in a special category. To encourage participation, Vincent Bendix promised a $2,500 prize for the aviatrix posting the fastest flying time to Los Angeles. As Thaden recalled after the race, O.A. Beech had once remarked to her, “I think we ought to have that money, don’t you?” 2
In August, Walter had yet to decide who would fly the blue and cream C17R he had selected as the Beech Aircraft Company’s entrant. Would it be a man or a woman? Olive Ann argued for a woman, but her husband was seriously considering Bill Ong, a salesman and factory test pilot, for the job. At the behest of his wife, however, Mr. Beech eventually agreed with her choice of Louise Thaden. In 1927, he had helped the young woman enter aviation by sending her to California to work alongside D.C. Warren, a well-known and successful dealer/distributor for the Travel Air Manufacturing Company, of which Walter was president at that time. She quickly proved herself a capable pilot, and at one time held the women’s speed, altitude and endurance records in the United States.
When Louise received Walter’s offer, she was surprised. She knew the competition would be formidable, and she also knew that speed was the quintessential element of the Bendix. Louise doubted that a humble Beechcraft could defeat the hard-flying Turner, Howard, Earhart, Ingalls and others, all of whom would be flying ships
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built for speed above all. When Thaden was tapped to fly the race she and Blanche Noyes were working for the Bureau of Air Commerce as part of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Works Project Administration. Their job was to convince Texas officials to install airmarkers at 600 cities and towns to help pilots navigate across the Lone Star State.
After talking with Noyes about the race, the two women decided to team up and fly Walter’s C17R the 3,000 miles from New York to California. They harbored no thoughts of winning – just finishing the grueling journey would be sufficient compensation. Louise telephoned Olive Ann and accepted the offer. From that moment on, time was of the essence. Only two weeks remained until September 4, and rules stipulated that all contestants had to arrive at Floyd Bennett Field no later than 48 hours before midnight on September 3, 1936. A week later Louise and Blanche arrived at the Beech factory and were introduced to the C17R registered NC15835. Resplendent in its colorful Sherwin Williams blue with white accent stripes, the ship had already been sold to the Honduran Government as a replacement for a B17L that had crashed during service with the country’s Escuela Militar de Aviacion.
Thaden later wrote that the Beechcraft had the appearance of “a trim, blue princess of the air, as though she was impatiently poised for instant flight ... as sleek and as fast as a greyhound, strong and sturdy as an ox.”3 The only modifications to the airframe were installation of a 56-gallon aluminum alloy auxiliary fuel tank that replaced the rear seat, and a 12-gallon oil tank mounted in the baggage compartment (oil from the tank had to be pumped forward to the engine’s tank using a wobble pump installed between the two front seats). The only
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