Frances Wilson Grayson

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Frances Wilson Grayson (* around 1890 in Cherokee City , Arkansas , † December 23, 1927 in the Atlantic off Nova Scotia or Newfoundland , Canada ) was an American pilot . She died trying to become the first woman to cross the Atlantic in an airplane .

Birth and education

Frances Grayson was in Cherokee City ( Arkansas born) daughter of AJ Wilson. After her family moved to Indiana from Arkansas , she graduated from Muncie High School in Indiana. After dropping out of music at Chicago Musical College due to her brother's sudden death, she went to Swarthmore College .

marriage

At Swarthmore College she met John Brady Grayson, 20 years her senior, and married him on September 15, 1914. They had no children and were divorced after nine years of marriage. Frances then moved to New York City and worked as a newspaper writer. She became a realtor and began to be interested in aviation . She was enthusiastic about Charles Lindbergh's crossing of the Atlantic in May 1927 and decided to be the first woman to do the same.

Career as an aviator

She received financial support from Mrs. Aage Ancker, a daughter of the Pittsburgh steel maker Charles H. Sang . On the night of December 23, 1927, she flew from New York to Harbor Grace , Newfoundland . From there she planned to start her historic Atlantic crossing to London, preferably at Christmas. The aircraft, a Sikorsky S-36 dubbed The Dawn , was flown by Lieutenant Oskar Omdal of the Norwegian Navy . Also on board were Brice Goldsborough (1889-1927) as navigator and the flight engineer Frank Koehler. However, nobody arrived in Newfoundland and there was complete radio silence for 48 hours. Then in Sable Island part of a message from the crew was picked up from about 80 miles away that said something was wrong here. The US Navy searched for the missing persons with five destroyers , but found nothing.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Garth James Cameron: From Pole to Pole: Roald Amundsen's Journey in Flight . Pen & Sword, 2013. ISBN 978-1-78159-337-0 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Grayson, Frances Wilson
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American pilot
DATE OF BIRTH around 1890
PLACE OF BIRTH Cherokee City , Arkansas
DATE OF DEATH December 23, 1927
Place of death off Nova Scotia or Newfoundland , Canada