Dorothy Hester Stenzel

Dorothy Hester Hofer Stenzel (September 14, 1910 – February 25, 1991) was an American aviator and stunt pilot. She had a groundbreaking stunt aerobatics career, often performing as "Princess-Kick-a-Hole-in-the-Sky", and later opened her own flight school in Cornelius, Oregon.

Childhood Stenzel was born in Milwaukie, Oregon, in 1910. She attended Ardenwald Elementary School, St. Agatha School, and Milwaukie High School. As a child, she remembered chasing after a hot-air balloon in an attempt to get a ride.

Pilot training A week before Stenzel turned seventeen, She loved her plane ride, and remarked to the pilot, "If I was a boy, I'd certainly learn to fly!" After he declined, she found another pilot to carry her at an airshow in Medford, Oregon.

When Rankin heard the story, he offered Stenzel four more parachuting jobs, which gave her enough money to enroll in the ground course.

Stunt pilot career

Early performances Stenzel became a popular feature in Rankin's weekly air shows. Stenzel was one of three female pilots in the show: the others were Mary Riddle and Edith Foltz.

1930: Northwest tour and first outside loop On June 22, 1930, Stenzel became the first woman to complete an upside-down outside spin. After two failures, she took a two-hour break, then returned to the air and finished the stunt correctly. At sunset, with 3,000 spectators watching her, she flew to an elevation of 6,000 feet. After three failed attempts, she made five successful outside loops. Edith Foltz seems to have been the only other female pilot on the tour. flying a yellow and red Great Lakes biplane with a 90 horsepower motor. Her sister, Helen Hester, traveled with her. The Eugene Register claimed that after this performance, local security "had great difficulty in keeping the spectators from crowding forward and fully crushing her and her small machine." and in February, traveled to California. On February 22, she set the new women's record for outside loops, completing five in a row over the Grand Central Airport in Glendale. In March, Stenzel set a new record, increasing to 23 consecutive outside loops at a benefit show for the Red Cross.

By May, Stenzel had developed several new maneuvers, including the "Hester roll", created by accident. The Oregonian's aviation editor, Webster A. Jones, described it: "She places the plane in a vertical bank to the left, reverses suddenly into position, completes half of a snap roll to the right, and flies away upside down. In the air it looks like a question mark." She set yet another record by flying 69 consecutive outside loops, 62 of which were deemed perfectly rounded by observers from the National Aeronautic Association (NAA). This record would remain unbroken by any woman for 57 years. She had wanted to break Rankin's 72-loop record, but ran out of fuel before she could reach it. and refused the ambulance that had been called for her. Noted aviator Al Williams said of her performance: "There's a mere slip of a girl doing stunts that chiefs of the army and navy air units of the nation said could not be done a year ago and the maneuvers the greatest fliers in the world would not have attempted three years ago- and she is not doing it in a $30,000 military plane with a powerful motor, but she is doing it in a light, cheap airplane with a four-cylinder engine at only 90 horsepower." Stenzel and Rankin flew to Cleveland, Ohio to receive a plane from the Great Lakes Aircraft Company. Described as "trim, light-brown and crimson with crimson wings", it had a 90 horsepower motor and weighed less than 1,000 pounds. on June 12. She was the first woman to perform stunts at a national air show and the only pilot, male or female, to perform every day of the show. During each performance, she flew for 15 Also taking part in the races was Robert Hofer, Stenzel's former classmate.

The races began on August 29. Stenzel hoped to break the men's record of 125 consecutive outside loops on Labor Day, In April, Stenzel flew in the New Orleans Carnival of the Air. Later that month, she performed in an air show to raise money for the Goodfellow employment bureau in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Stenzel became a flight instructor for the Union Avenue Flying Service, a flying school "and air taxi service" organized by Tex Rankin and his brothers Dudley and Richard. On October 10, Rankin Field was dedicated in his honor: Stenzel and Tex Rankin both performed stunts at the ceremony. Also in 1932, Stenzel founded her own flight school, which she operated for the next two years.

Marriage to Robert Hofer Stenzel married Robert Dent Hofer on June 30, 1934. and had their own airstrip outside their home in Banks, Oregon.

Gravity testing Stenzel was the first woman to undergo the U.S. Navy's gravity test for pilots. There, she saw stunt pilot Joann Osterud fly, and asked her when she was going to try breaking Stenzel's outside loop record.

Later life Stenzel flew less often in her later years, lamenting the stricter regulations on air travel and "preferring to spend time with her five grandchildren".

Recognition The Oregon legislature passed a resolution in 1985 commending her "for her courage, her determination and her achievements in aviation."