Page 33 - August 2015 Volume 9, Number 8

Thaden (left) and Noyes paused for the camera shortly before departing the Beech factory for Floyd Bennett Field near New York City. The Beechcraft C17R was stock except for installation of auxiliary fuel and oil tanks. The additional gasoline tank required the Beechcraft to make only one stop en route for fuel. (SPECIAL COLLECTIONS AND UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES, WICHITA STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES)
being discouraged, they continued flying toward their next major checkpoint, Albuquerque, New Mexico.
If the duo had known what had happened to their competitors that day, perhaps they would not have felt so sullen. Benny Howard was out of the race, as was Joe Jacobsen, and Amelia Earhart and co-pilot Helen Richey’s twin-engine, all-metal Lockheed Electra had fallen far behind because a stubborn hatch had refused to close, doing irreparable damage to their chance for victory. Thaden and Noyes were in the lead, but close behind was petit Laura Ingalls flying her black Lockheed Orion monoplane. She would later prove to be Louise Thaden’s chief adversary in a race to the finish line. Oblivious to all that was happening elsewhere that day, the two lady aviators left New Mexico behind and sped across Arizona’s bleak desert landscape to California. Ahead of them, however, lay a range of high mountains that would have to be crossed at an altitude of at least 14,000 feet. The Wright engine roared steadily as the C17R climbed into the cold, autumn skies above the snow-capped peaks.
By the time the airplane cleared the mountains, it became obvious that the sun had beaten the Beechcraft westward, and was slowly sinking toward the horizon. Louise reduced power and began a long but speedy
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descent in the general direction of Los Angeles. Looking at their watches both women breathed a sigh of relief – they would arrive before the deadline. All that remained was to guide their ship to the designated airport, fly across the finish line in the correct direction, and land safely. Years later, Louise remembered her thoughts as the final miles droned by: “Believing I had lost all chance of landing in the money, I felt elated that anyhow, perhaps from the thrill of finishing a race in which you have given your best, perhaps because I knew I had tried hard in the face of many obstacles.”8
Weary but alert, Louise and Blanche had put 2,600 miles between them and Floyd Bennett Field, but they faced one more challenge – locate Mines Field and do it quickly. Thaden leveled off at 2,000 feet as both women kept a keen vigil for any sign of the airport. The glare of a setting sun, coupled with the haze and smog that pervaded the area, reduced visibility to only a few miles. Blanche had calculated that they should be over the field at any moment, but it remained hidden. Suddenly she cried out, “There it is!” Louise put the Beechcraft into a shallow dive and flashed across the finish line at more than 200 mph, “with thundering reverberations we swept low across the airport, my eyes too busy looking for planes to notice anything on the ground.” She nearly
SEPTEMBER 2015