Bernetta Adams Miller

Bernetta Adams Miller (January 11, 1884 – November 30, 1972) was a pioneering woman aviator who was the fifth licensed woman pilot in the United States. She led a colorful life including winning a Croix de Guerre in World War I and being one of the people standing between Albert Einstein and the public at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.

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Early life Bernetta Miller was born in Canton, Ohio. Her family lived for a time in Nebraska, but soon moved to the Finger Lakes region of New York state where she briefly attended the State Normal School at Geneseo. She dropped out when her father's business failed, and they returned to Canton, where she attended Canton Actual Business College where she studied bookkeeping. She then moved to New York City.

Aviation In New York, she became interested in aviation and took flying lessons in 1912 from the Moisant aviation school in Mineola, Long Island. Miller's apprenticeship was on the Hempstead Plains aviation field. She received her license on September 16, 1912, On September 29, 1912, the newspaper quoted her as sayingI am not here to do fancy flying, but simply to show the people of Washington that the monoplane is a better machine than the biplane. I will not fly until after the funeral of the two men who were killed. I think it would be disrespectful. My ambition is to become a great cross-country flier. I am not flying to achieve fame as a fancy flier or an exhibition flier, but to show women that the aeroplane is practical when it is asked to do only what it is physically possible to do. Bernetta was a member of the Women's Overseas Service League.

Museum collections

Her 1912 flying suit (actually one made for riding in open automobiles) is on display at the College Park Airport in Maryland. There is a picture of her in the Early Flight room of the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

Her pilot's license and Early Bird plaque are in the collection of the Stark County Historical Society, dba McKinley Presidential Library & Museum, in her hometown of Canton, Ohio.