Ruth Law
Ruth Bancroft Law (born March 21, 1887 in Lynn , Massachusetts , † December 1, 1970 in San Francisco , California ) was an American aviation pioneer .
Life
Ruth Law learned to fly in 1912 at the Burgess Flying School in Atlantic (now Boston , Massachusetts); she made her first flight on July 5th, and on August 12th she flew alone for the first time. On November 12th, she received her pilot's license, making her the fifth licensed female pilot and first female pilot in Florida.
In the same year she bought her first airplane from Orville Wright . In this aircraft, she was one of the first female pilots to complete a night flight. Another aviation novelty was in 1914 when her brother, the stuntman Rodman Law , parachuted out of her plane. Another flying sensation was a double loop , which she performed in Seabreeze (now Daytona Beach ) in 1915 . During this time she earned her living with passenger flights on the beach.
In November 1916, she broke the distance record at the time with a flight of approximately 950 km from Chicago to New York City . Because of this achievement, a banquet was held in New York City by the Aero Club America and the New York Citizens' Forum, attended by Law, Robert Edwin Peary , Roald Amundsen and the sister of US President Woodrow Wilson .
“The 25-year-old American aviator Ruth Law landed in New York these days after a flight from Chicago, after having covered a distance of 1,441 kilometers in 8 hours 59 minutes. She had risen in Chicago at 7:20 a.m. and landed on Governor's Island right next to the military post. Miss Law's achievement hits the American distance record and sets a world record for female aviators. She used an old Curtis [s] double-decker, which is hardly used today. During the flight, the aviator suffered badly from the cold, and in addition to the abundance her fuel was running low, so that it was only with great effort that she made it possible to cross the tongue of water that separates the continent from the island. "
Ruth Law took part in the commissioning of the first electric lighting of the Statue of Liberty in 1917 with a "brilliantly illuminated" airplane on which the word Liberty could be recognized in brightly lit letters .
In 1917 her application for military combat missions was refused (only men were allowed to do this); However, she was allowed to wear a military uniform in a row. She raised funds for the Red Cross and Liberty Bonds . After the war she founded Ruth Law's Flying Circus ; spectacular stunts were performed there with three aircraft. After her pilot Laura Bromwell was killed in a crash, she had to end her flying career in 1922 on the instructions of her husband Charles Oliver.
Ruth Law died on December 1, 1970 in San Francisco.
literature
- Ernst Probst: Queens of the skies from A to Z: biographies of famous female pilots . GRIN Verlag, 2010, ISBN 978-3-640-65800-8 ( online in the Google book search).
- Kevin M. McCarthy: Aviation in Florida . Pineapple Press, 2003, ISBN 1-56164-281-9 ( online in Google Book Search).
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Ruth Law at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum
- ^ A b Kevin M. McCarthy: Aviation in Florida . Pineapple Press, 2003, ISBN 1-56164-281-9 ( online in Google Book Search).
- ↑ a b c Ernst Probst: Queens of the skies from A to Z: Biographies of famous female pilots . GRIN Verlag, 2010, ISBN 978-3-640-65800-8 ( online in the Google book search).
- ↑ A female record flyer. : The Bund. Zentralblatt des Bundes Österreichischer Frauenvereine , year 1917, p. 57 (online at ANNO ).
- ↑ The Statue of Liberty in New York illuminated by electricity. In: Pester Lloyd , February 3, 1917, p. 7 (online at ANNO ).
- ↑ one day: The tired of life and the flying ace
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Law, Ruth |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Law, Ruth Bancroft |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American aviation pioneer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 21, 1887 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Lynn , Massachusetts |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1st December 1970 |
| Place of death | San Francisco , California |