Katherine Stinson

Katherine Stinson (born February 14, 1891 in Fort Payne , Alabama , † July 8, 1977 in Santa Fe , New Mexico ) was an American aviation pioneer and architect. In the early days of aviation, she became well known for her show and aerobatics . She became known as the "Flying Schoolgirl".

Life

Katherine was the first of four children of electrical engineer Edward Anderson Stinson and his wife Emma Beavers Stinson. The parents separated amicably, so that Katherine's mother and her sibling Edward Jr. (called Eddie), Marjorie and John largely raised alone after moving to the state of Arkansas . Katherine was raised liberally and began to love music as a teenager. Since the family's financial means were not enough for Katherine's training as a pianist in Europe, she decided to earn the necessary money as a pilot.

After Stinson was turned away at several flight schools, flight instructor Max Lillie from near Chicago agreed to train Katherine. After three weeks of training, she passed the test flight in a Wright Model B on July 24, 1912 and was the fourth woman to receive a flight license in the United States. A little later she bought her first airplane and with the help of her family founded the Stinson Aviation Company in Hot Springs in April 1913 . Katherine moved away from her plan to become a musician and instead began performing in front of an audience for a fee and touring the country. Because of her youthful appearance, she was nicknamed "The Flying Schoolgirl" by viewers and the press, although she was already 21 years old when the license was acquired. By transporting a total of 1,333 postcards and letters between the post stations in Helena and Washington, DC , Katherine became the first woman to fly mail in the United States in September 1913 .

Katherine Stinson in Japan

After their siblings Marjorie and Eddie also acquired flight licenses, the family moved to San Antonio , Texas. There they opened the Stinson School of Flying, where military personnel from the USA and Canada in particular were trained. The weather conditions at the new location opened up year-round training opportunities for her increasingly complex and spectacular performances. At a demonstration in Cicero Field near Chicago in 1915, she was the first woman in the USA to fly a loop , which she later developed into the "Dippy Twist Loop" and built a torn roll into the loop (at the apex of the upswing) . In Los Angeles in December 1915 she drew the letters CAL in the night sky with magnesium torches attached to the wings and became one of the first sky writers in aviation history.

Her rapidly growing popularity allowed her to tour Japan and China from December 1916 to May 1917, where she became the first woman to pilot an airplane. During the tour, Stinson flew a total of 32 screenings in front of thousands of people.

After the USA entered the First World War , civil aviation was severely restricted. The San Antonio flight school had to close, and the only way Katherine could continue flying planes was to work as a mail aviator. Here, too, she managed to draw attention to herself with distance and speed records. On December 11, 1917, she flew non-stop from San Diego to San Francisco and set a new long-distance record with 610 miles flown without stopping in 9 hours and 10 minutes.

The US armed forces were urgently looking for pilots for use in France. Katherine Stinson volunteered several times but was turned away because of her gender. To add to the US war effort, Stinson took her plane on a promotional tour in June 1917 to raise money for the American Red Cross . Katherine volunteered again and eventually served as an ambulance driver for the Red Cross in England and France.

During her stay in Europe, Stinson fell ill with the flu and later with tuberculosis . This forced her to withdraw from commercial post and show flying in 1920, although she remained a member of the Ninety Nines until her death and was on friendly terms with subsequent generations of female pilots. She moved to Santa Fe and became an architect there. In 1928 she married the lawyer and former military aviator Miguel Otero Jr. The marriage remained childless, but the couple adopted their brother John's four children.

After her death in 1977, she was buried in the Santa Fe National Cemetery.

Honors

Katherine Stinson in front of her Curtiss Stinson Special, which was rebuilt especially for her

In 2000, Stinson was posthumously inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame at the San Diego Air and Space Museum .
In memory of Stinson's first mail flight in western Canada (from Calgary to Edmonton in July 1918), volunteers at the Alberta Aviation Museum in Edmonton recreated their Curtiss Stinson Special. The replica took around 20,000 hours of work and has been part of the exhibition since 2006.
In memory of the two flight-loving Stinson sisters, the American National Aeronautic Association (NAA) annually awards the Katherine & Marjorie Stinson Trophy to women who have made lasting or outstanding contributions to the role of women in the aerospace industry. The trophy was originally intended as an award from the Lockheed company for Amelia Earhart and should be presented to her after her successful circumnavigation of the world with her Lockheed Vega . After Earhart's disappearance, the statue was in the possession of the American Legion for several decades before the National Aviation Club (NAC; predecessor organization of the NAA) rededicated the trophy and gave it to female pilots.
In September 2019, Katherine Stinson was posthumously inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in Denver. At the ceremony, a medal was presented by astronaut Eileen Collins to Jan McKenzie, chairwoman of the Ninety-Nines pilots association. The medal is on permanent display in the Texas Air Museum at Stinson Municipal Airport in San Antonio.

literature

Claudia M. Oakes: United States Women in Aviation through World War I. Smithsonian Studies in Air and Space No.2. Washington DC, 1978.
Giacinta Bradley Koontz: Little Katie Stinson - Coveralls and kimonos I n: AviationPros. April 24, 2008, accessed March 8, 2021.

Web links

Commons : Katherine Stinson - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

^ Koontz, 2008.
↑ ^a ^b Oakes, 1978, pp. 33-34.
↑ ^a ^b Thomas van Hare: The Dippy Twist Loop. In: Historic Wings. September 26, 2016, accessed March 8, 2021 .
↑ Katherine Stinson Otero. New Mexico History Blog, September 7, 2017, accessed March 8, 2021 .
↑ Katherine Stinson. In: San Diego Air and Space Museum. Accessed March 8, 2021 .
^ Curtiss Stinson Special. Alberta Aviation Museum, accessed March 8, 2021 .
^ Stinson Trophy. National Aeronautic Association, accessed March 8, 2021 .
^ Trophy, Amelia Earhart, World Flight, Katherine Stinson Award. Accessed March 8, 2021 .
^ John Chalmers: Women of Aviation Profile: Katherine Stinson Honored in the US Hall of Fame. In: Alberta Aviation Museum. February 25, 2020, accessed March 8, 2021 .

personal data
SURNAME	Stinson, Katherine
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American aviation pioneer
DATE OF BIRTH	February 14, 1891
PLACE OF BIRTH	Alabama
DATE OF DEATH	July 8, 1977
PLACE OF DEATH	Santa Fe , New Mexico

[1] Koontz, 2008.

[:0-2] Oakes, 1978, pp. 33-34.

[:1-3] Thomas van Hare: The Dippy Twist Loop. In: Historic Wings. September 26, 2016, accessed March 8, 2021 .

[4] Katherine Stinson Otero. New Mexico History Blog, September 7, 2017, accessed March 8, 2021 .

[5] Katherine Stinson. In: San Diego Air and Space Museum. Accessed March 8, 2021 .

[6] Curtiss Stinson Special. Alberta Aviation Museum, accessed March 8, 2021 .

[7] Stinson Trophy. National Aeronautic Association, accessed March 8, 2021 .

[8] Trophy, Amelia Earhart, World Flight, Katherine Stinson Award. Accessed March 8, 2021 .

[9] John Chalmers: Women of Aviation Profile: Katherine Stinson Honored in the US Hall of Fame. In: Alberta Aviation Museum. February 25, 2020, accessed March 8, 2021 .