Page 30 - Volume 10 Number 9

In less than two years, Louise Thaden went from selling coal in Wichita, Kansas, to setting flying records in California. Walter Beech was chiefly responsible for giving the young woman from Arkansas her start in aeronautics. She made him proud in 1929 by winning her division of the Women’s Air Derby, and in 1936, with Blanche Noyes as co-pilot, she was the first woman to win the Bendix cross- country race, flying a nearly stock Beechcraft C17R. (EDWARD H. PHILLIPS COLLECTION)
airplane as a unique venue for courting couples as well as performing aerial nuptials, and a number of weddings were performed while airborne above Wichita (both brothers also “romanced” their future wives in the ship). The Wadlow Brother’s Flying Service managed to survive until 1933 when the Great Depression forced the twins to close the doors and seek other aviation endeavors. Both brothers eventually went to work once again for Walter Beech, who had returned to Wichita in 1932 and established the Beech Aircraft Company.1
28 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
Not long after Mr. Beech had helped Truman and Newman Wadlow take their first steps toward a career in aviation, a pretty college graduate named Iris Louise McPhetridge came to Wichita and took employment with Jack Turner’s company selling coal, fuel oil and construction materials. Although she proved to be a loyal and hard-working employee, she gradually developed a habit of stopping at the Travel Air factory. As her visits increased in frequency, Louise was branded a nuisance by the men working on the production line and in back shops. Undaunted, Ms. McPhetridge kept up her visits.
Hailing from Bentonville, Arkansas, Louise was fascinated by flying machines, how they were built and the daring aviators who flew them. As her curiosity increased, so did her unauthorized stops at the Travel Air facilities. Late in 1926 she realized her true dream was not medicine, which she had studied in college, but the desire to fly. One cold day in December she was caught by her boss at the flying field, watching with great interest as Clarence Clark flew the latest Travel Air, the Type 5000 cabin monoplane, on its maiden flight. Fearing that she would lose her job, or at the least be scolded severely for dereliction of duty, Louise was surprised when Jack Turner laughed and told her to stay and witness the flight.
The next day she was called into Turner’s office. Certain that a reprimand would be followed by unemployment, Ms. McPhetridge was told to sit down and answer a few questions regarding her interest in aviation. Turner concluded their conversation by saying that he would talk with his friend Walter Beech to determine if Beech could help Louise win her wings. A few days went by before Walter called her on the telephone and arranged a meeting between himself, Louise and D.C. Warren, a new Travel Air distributor based in Oakland, California. Beech explained that her serious interest in flying had impressed him, and after much consideration, he had an offer he hoped she would not refuse.
Warren agreed to take Louise out west with him and teach her the aviation business. It would mean long hours and hard work, but she would receive flying lessons at no expense to her. Louise could hardly believe what she was hearing! Saying farewell to her family in Arkansas and her job in Kansas, on April 2, 1927, McPhetridge climbed into the front cockpit of a new Model B biplane and accompanied Warren on the long flight westward. In her autobiography, “High, Wide and Frightened,” published in 1938, Louise vividly describes how she learned to fly and eventually became manager of Warren’s satellite facility in Oakland, California. Along the way she met and married Herbert von Thaden, a talented aircraft designer and pilot who shared her love of flying.
A year after leaving Wichita, Louise had gained sufficient experience in the air to attempt an assault on the women’s altitude record. Her airplane of choice, of course, would be her favorite mount – a Travel Air
SEPTEMBER 2016