Blanche Noyes
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Blanche Noyes (June 23, 1900 – October 6, 1981) was an American pioneering female aviator who was among the first ten women to receive a transport
pilot's license Pilot licensing or certification refers to permits for operating aircraft. Flight crew licences are issued by the civil aviation authority of each country, which must establish that the holder has met minimum knowledge and experience before issui ...
. In 1929, she became
Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...
's first licensed female pilot.


Biography

She was born Blanche Wilcox on June 23, 1900, in
Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...
,
Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...
. She gave up her acting career after marrying pilot Dewey L. Noyes (c. 1900 – 1935) in 1928. She started flying in 1929 after getting a lesson from her husband. She soloed on February 15 after four hours of training and received her pilot's license in June of the same year. Noyes entered the inaugural
Women's Air Derby The Women's Air Derby was the first official women-only air race in the United States, taking place during the 1929 National Air Races. Humorist Will Rogers referred to it as the Powder Puff Derby, the name by which the race is most common ...
in August 1929, one of twenty competitors attempting to fly from
Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...
to Cleveland. Along the way, she "narrowly escaped death when her plane caught fire in mid-air near Pecos." She set down so hard her landing gear was damaged. She put out the fire, made repairs and resumed the race. She placed fourth in the heavy class. She was a demonstration pilot for
Standard Oil Standard Oil Company was a Trust (business), corporate trust in the petroleum industry that existed from 1882 to 1911. The origins of the trust lay in the operations of the Standard Oil of Ohio, Standard Oil Company (Ohio), which had been founde ...
in 1931 and flew with various organizations. On 11 December 1935, her husband and his passenger died when his airplane crashed in dense fog and a snowstorm. In 1936, she teamed up as co-pilot to
Louise Thaden Iris Louise McPhetridge Thaden (born Louise McPhetridge; November 12, 1905 – November 9, 1979) was an American aviation pioneer, holder of numerous aviation records, and the first woman to win the Bendix trophy, alongside Blanche Noyes. She was ...
(a fellow 1929 Women's Air Derby competitor) and won the
Bendix Trophy The Bendix Trophy is a U.S. aeronautical racing trophy. The transcontinental, point-to-point race, sponsored by industrialist Vincent Bendix founder of Bendix Corporation, began in 1931 as part of the National Air Races. Initial prize money f ...
Race in the first year women were allowed to compete against men. They set a new world record of 14 hours, 55 minutes flying from
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
to
Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...
, in a Beech C17R Staggerwing
biplane A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two main wings stacked one above the other. The first powered, controlled aeroplane to fly, the Wright Flyer, used a biplane wing arrangement, as did many aircraft in the early years of aviation. While ...
. Laura Ingalls came in second by 45 minutes flying a Lockheed Orion. While living in
Irvington, New Jersey Irvington is a Township (New Jersey), township in Essex County, New Jersey, Essex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. As of the 2020 United States census, the township's population was 61,176, an increase of 7,250 (+13.4%) from the 2010 Uni ...
, Noyes became a member of the Women's Advisory Committee on Aeronautics. In August 1936, she was among a handful of leading aviatrices to join the Air Marking Group of the
Bureau of Air Commerce The Air Commerce Act of 1926 created an Aeronautic Branch of the United States Department of Commerce. Its functions included testing and licensing of pilots, certification of aircraft and investigation of accidents. In 1934, the Aeronautics Branc ...
, funded by the
Works Progress Administration The Works Progress Administration (WPA; from 1935 to 1939, then known as the Work Projects Administration from 1939 to 1943) was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers (mostly men who were not formally educated) to car ...
. The group's objective was to aid aerial navigation by writing the name of the nearest town at 15-mile (24 km) intervals, on the roofs of prominent buildings if possible, on the ground in white paint when not. With America's entry into
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
in December 1941, however, for security reasons the Noyes team had to black out the roughly 13,000 sites they had marked. After the war, as head of the air marking division of the Civil Aeronautics Administration, she oversaw their restoration and added further navigational aids. According to the
National Air and Space Museum The National Air and Space Museum (NASM) of the Smithsonian Institution is a museum in Washington, D.C., in the United States, dedicated to history of aviation, human flight and space exploration. Established in 1946 as the National Air Museum, ...
, "For many years, she was the only woman pilot allowed to fly a government aircraft." She also wrote numerous newspaper and magazine articles. She died on October 6, 1981, in
Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...


Legacy

She was the first woman awarded a gold medal by the Commerce Department, for 35 years of government service improving air safety. In 2021, an opera memorializing her run in the 1936 Bendix Trophy Race titled ''Staggerwing'' was premiered at the
Kansas Aviation Museum The Kansas Aviation Museum is a museum located in Wichita, Kansas, near 31st South and George Washington Blvd. The building, designed by Glen H. Thomas, served as Wichita Municipal Airport's terminal from 1935 to 1954. In February of 2024, the ...
. Composed by Lisa DeSpain with librettist Rachel J. Peters, ''Staggerwing'' was the winner of the 2020 biennial Zepick Modern Opera Competition.


References


External links


Photographs of Blanche Noyes
at the Cleveland Memory Project, Cleveland State University Libraries.
Portrait of Blanche W. Noyes, Santa Monica (probably), 1929.
Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...
Photographic Archive (Collection 1429). UCLA Library Special Collections,
Charles E. Young Research Library The Charles E. Young Research Library is one of the largest libraries on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles in Westwood, Los Angeles, California. It initially opened in 1964, and a second phase of construction was completed ...
,
University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...
. {{DEFAULTSORT:Noyes, Blanche 1900 births 1981 deaths American air racers American aviation record holders American women aviation record holders Aviators from Ohio Flight endurance record holders People from Cleveland People from Irvington, New Jersey 20th-century American women 20th-century American people