Blanche Stuart Scott

Blanche Stuart Scott (April 8, 1885 – January 12, 1970), also known as Betty Scott, was possibly the first American woman aviator. For her automobile journey across the United States she won the attention and admiration of pioneer aviator Glenn Curtiss who gave her flying lessons at the Curtiss flying school, in Hammondsport, New York, America's first flying school.

Biography

Early life Blanche Stuart Scott was born on April 8, 1885, in Rochester, New York, to Belle and John Scott. Her father was a successful businessman who manufactured and sold patent medicine. Scott was an early enthusiast of the automobile. Her father bought a car and, at age thirteen, she drove it about the city in a time before there were minimum age restrictions on driving, much less licensing programs. Her driving terrorized the streets of Rochester which led to an attempt by the city council to ban her from driving. In 1900 the family, still in Rochester, lived at 116 Weld Avenue. Scott's family considered her a tomboy and sent her to a finishing school.

Automobile adventure

In 1910 Scott became the second woman, after Alice Huyler Ramsey, to drive a Willys-Overland Model 38 automobile across the United States and the first driving westwards from New York City to San Francisco, California. The trip was sponsored by the Willys-Overland Company and the car was named the "Lady Overland". Gertrude Buffington Phillips, a reporter, was her passenger. They left New York on May 16, 1910, and reached San Francisco on July 23, 1910. The New York Times wrote on May 17, 1910: Miss Scott, with Miss Phillips as only companion, starts on long trip with the object of demonstrating the possibility of a woman driving a motor car across the country and making all the necessary repairs en route. Miss Blanche Stuart Scott yesterday started in an Overland automobile on a transcontinental journey which will end in San Francisco. Achievements in aviation

The publicity surrounding the automobile journey brought her to the attention of Jerome Fanciulli and Glenn Curtiss who agreed to provide her with flying lessons in Hammondsport, New York. In 1911 Curtiss founded the first flying school in America at Hammondsport, New York. Here he taught Blanche Scott how to operate an airplane, where she subsequently became America's first female pilot. During this time Scott resided in Hammondsport at the home of Curtiss and his family. where Scott received her flying lessons. She was the only woman to receive instruction directly from Curtiss. He fitted a limiter on the throttle of Scott's airplane to prevent it gaining enough speed to become airborne while she practiced taxiing on her own. On September 6 either the limiter moved or a gust of wind lifted the biplane and she flew to an altitude of forty feet before executing a gentle landing. Her flight was short and possibly unintentional but Scott is credited by the Early Birds of Aviation as the first woman to pilot and solo in an airplane in the United States, although Bessica Medlar Raiche's flight on September 16 was accredited as first by the Aeronautical Society of America at the time. In 2005, Scott was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.