Page 32 - Volume 10 Number 9

An exhausted but thrilled Louise Thaden posed for the cameras after flying her Travel Air Type D4000 from Santa Monica, California, to Cleveland, Ohio, in August 1929. Thanks to careful navigation, she beat more famous fliers such as Amelia Earhart and Ruth Elder. The D4000 was later sold and ferried by Truman Wadlow to its new owner. (EDWARD H. PHILLIPS COLLECTION)
By 1936, Louise was working for the Bureau of Air Commerce when she received a telephone call from an old friend, Olive Ann Beech. She wanted Louise to enter the Bendix Trophy race, which was allowing women to compete directly with men for the first time in the event’s history. Walter Beech agreed to the proposal, and aviatrix and close friend Blanche Noyes was tapped as Thaden’s co-pilot and navigator.
Walter provided the duo an essentially stock Beechcraft Model C17R Staggerwing as their mount. Departing Floyd Bennett airport near New York City in the early hours of September 4, Louise and Blanche cruised across the nation, stopping only for fuel at preplanned points, including one at Wichita. After a relatively uneventful journey of 14 hours 55 minutes, the two women were stunned to learn that the C17R was the first to land at Mines Field near Los Angeles, beating a field of highly
respected men and women pilots. In addition, they had established a transcontinental record (east-west) for women.
In the years ahead, Louise never forgot that Walter Beech was chiefly responsible for not only helping her enter aviation, but also for his guidance and friendship until his death in 1950. KA
NOTES:
1. In the mid-1930s, Walter Beech sent Truman Wadlow to California, where he became a Beechcraft distributor. During World War II he flew military transport missions with the United States Army Air Forces in the United States and Europe. After the war he flew as a corporate pilot for Phillips Petroleum, flying alongside his former instructor, Clarence Clark. Truman died in 1993. Newman Wadlow flew in the 1929 Ford Tour in a Travel Air Type 6000B, accompanied by Ralph Nordberg, director of public relations for the company. As with his twin brother, Newman had a distinguished career in corporate and private aviation, flying and selling airplanes until his retirement in the mid-1980s. He died in 1989. Both brothers were inducted into the Oklahoma Aviation Hall of Fame in 1983.
2. In 1929, Louise became the fourth woman in the United States to earn a Transport License, and later that year, together with Amelia Earhart and other female pilots, established the Ninety-Nines – a unique organization aimed at inspiring women to fly. During the early 1930s Thaden worked for Walter Beech, demonstrating the Model 17 biplane to potential customers. In 1934, Louise was hired
by the Bureau of Air Commerce to promote the marking of airports in the western United States to help pilots determine their location. During World War II, she was active in the Civil Air Patrol. Louise Thaden died in 1979.
Ed Phillips, now retired and living in the South, has researched and written eight books on the unique and rich aviation history that belongs to Wichita, Kan. His writings have focused on
the evolution of the airplanes, companies and people that have made Wichita the “Air Capital of the World” for more than 80 years.
SEPTEMBER 2016
30 • KING AIR MAGAZINE