Katherine Stinson: Trailblazing Pilot
- Ninfa O. Barnard
- 5 days ago
- 4 min read
Katherine Stinson was a trailblazing stunt pilot, flight instructor, skilled mechanic, Postal Service airmail pilot, World War I Red Cross worker, and accomplished Pueblo-style architect. She was the fourth woman in U.S history to become a licensed pilot, the first woman to master the loop-the-loop flying maneuver, and the first person to skywrite at night.
Image Credit: www.wikipedia.com
Katherine Stinson was born on February 14, 1891, in Fort Payne, Alabama, to Edward Stinson Sr. and Emma Beaver Stinson. When her parents amicably separated, Stinson and her three younger siblings were raised by their entrepreneurial single mother. While Stinson was in high school, her family moved to Pine Bluff, Arkansas,
In her youth, Stinson excelled in music. She intended to pursue a career as a concert pianist and music teacher, but her parents could not afford to send her to any world-renowned European music schools. Subsequently, she took notice of the growing field of aviation that the Wright brothers had opened up with their historic 1903 flight. After Stinton learned that stunt pilots could make up to $1,000 a day, she decided to become a pilot to raise money for her music education in Europe.
Initially, she struggled to find a mentor willing to teach a woman how to fly an airplane, as flying instructors repeatedly advised her to choose a career more suitable to her sex. Nonetheless, Stinson persisted in her goal. In May of 1912, she traveled to Chicago to meet Maximilian Theodore Liljestrand, best known as Max Lillie, a Swedish immigrant who owned his flying school. Although Lillie initially refused to teach her to fly, believing women lacked the physical strength to operate a flying machine, Stinson again persisted. She convinced Lillie to take her for a ride in one of his planes and just four hours after the flight began, she took over flying the plane. Lillie then agreed to be her stunt teacher.
On July 12, 1912, while Stinson was still a resident of Pine Bluff, she became the fourth woman in U.S. history to earn a pilot’s license after completing the Federation Aeronautique Internationale requirements of flying without the assistance of an instructor, performed a figure-eight maneuver, and making an ascent to an altitude of 500 feet. In 1913, the Arkansas Gazette wrote a riveting article about Stinson’s Labor Day stunt flight performance over the city.
In April 1913, Stinson and her mother founded the Stinson Aviation Company in Hot Springs, Arkansas. During this time, she often showcased her skill as a stunt pilot at aviation meets, county fairs, and other public gatherings. A Kansas City newspaper even nicknamed her the “Flying Schoolgirl” because they noted that she looked like a sophomore in high school because of her small stature and youthful appearance. Stinson's three younger siblings, Majorie, Jack, and Eddie, also shared her passion for flying, becoming pilots in their own right. Sometime later in 1913, Stinson followed Lillie to San Antonio, Texas, establishing the Stinson School of Flying there in 1915.
During her time as an exhibition pilot, Stinson became the first to accomplish many feats. She became the first woman to perform a loop-the-loop at Cicero Field in Chicago, later performing this feat a record 500 times without a single accident. She was one of the first women authorized to carry mail for the United States and was the first pilot to perform night skywriting spelling out "CAL" with flares as she flew over Los Angeles, California. In 1916 she was the first woman to fly at the Calgary Exhibition in Canada. Consequently, she was invited to Japan, where she thrilled crowds with her night skywriting. After a flight over the city of Yokohama, the mayor wrote her a letter stating, “The aerial flights which you have just given in the city of Yokohama today were most brilliant and clever.” She went on to perform exhibition flights in China, becoming the first woman to fly in both China and Japan. In 1917, she became the first person to fly nonstop for 610 miles across California from San Diego to San Francisco. She broke this record with her 783-mile flight from Chicago, Illinois to New York. Stinton was also an excellent mechanic who could take apart and put together the planes she flew in her stunt shows.
During World War I, Stinson volunteered to help the war effort as a pilot but was turned down twice because she was a woman. Unphased, she toured across the U.S. to raise money for the Red Cross, raising more than $2 million by completing a flight from Buffalo, New York, to Washington, D.C., while making appearances along the way.
Determined to further aid the war efforts, Stinson volunteered to become an ambulance driver in France. While in France, she contracted tuberculosis, an infectious lung disease, that prevented her from flying again.
After returning to the U.S., Stinson moved to New Mexico to seek treatment for her tuberculosis at the Sunmount Sanitarium in Santa Fe. While at the Sanitorium, she met renowned architect John Gaw Meem. Stinson later started a new career, becoming a successful architect without being part of a firm or being registered in the state. She became well-known for designing pueblo-style homes that showcased her understanding of space and utilized local materials and customs. She designed the Gay-Wagner House and Dorothy McKibbin’s house in Santa Fe, which are now on the National Register of Historic Places.
In 1928, Stinson married Miguel A. Otero, Jr., the son of former New Mexico Territorial Governor Miguel Otero, Sr. and a fellow pilot who served in World War I. Together they adopted and raised Barbara, Jerry, Jackie, and Edward Stinson, Stinson’s younger brother Jack’s four children.
Stinson died in Sante Fe on July 8, 1977, at age 86. She was buried in the Santa Fe National Cemetery. Stinson Field in San Antonio, California, one of the oldest continuously operating airports in the nation, is named in honor of the Stinson family.
Sources:
Written by: Ninfa O. Barnard
Comments