Katherine Stinson

Katherine Stinson (February 14, 1891 – July 8, 1977) was an American aviation pioneer who, in 1912, became the fourth woman in the United States to earn the FAI pilot certificate. She set flying records for aerobatic maneuvers, distance, and endurance. She was the first female pilot employed by the U.S. Postal Service and the first civilian pilot to fly the mail in Canada. She was also one of the first pilots to ever fly at night and the first female pilot to fly in Canada, Japan, and China. She also was the first woman to fly over London, England.

Katherine was the first of the pioneering Stinson siblings of early aviation, who included younger sister Marjorie, and their younger brothers Eddie and Jack.

Early life and flight training Stinson was born on February 14, 1891, at Fort Payne, Alabama, to Edward Anderson Sr. and Emma Beavers Stinson. Edward Sr. left the family, leaving Emma alone to raise Stinson and her younger siblings Edward Jr., Marjorie, and John (Jack). Emma moved the family to Jackson, Mississippi, where Stinson attended high school.

Stinson learned to drive the family flivver at the age of 14. In 1911, she took her first flight aloft in a hot-air balloon in Kansas City. She then took flying lessons from the well-known aviator Max Lillie, a pilot for the Wright Brothers, who initially refused to teach her because she was female. However, Stinson was able to solo the Wright Model B, after only four hours of instruction, on July 13, 1912, at Cicero Field.

She was the fourth woman in the United States to obtain a pilot's certificate, which she earned on July 24, 1912, at the age of 21.

Stunt flying and world records

After she received her certificate, Stinson returned to her family in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Stinson and her mother, Emma, incorporated the Stinson Aviation Company in April 1913 to "manufacture, sell, rent, and otherwise engage in the aircraft trade." In May, Stinson bought a Wright B from Lillie. In July, she flew at Cincinnati's Coney Island Park, and then Columbus, Indiana in August. She then carried the first airmail at the Helena State Fair, flew at the Illinois State Fair, then El Paso; Helena, Arkansas; New Orleans; and Beaumont, Texas. Stinson then received permission to use the airplane sheds at Fort Sam Houston. She believed the San Antonio, Texas, area had an ideal flying climate. ), and went on to perform this feat some 500 times without a single accident. She also became one of the first pilots to ever fly at night.

In 1917, Stinson made a six-month tour of China and Japan, becoming the first female to fly in Asia.

Until she acquired a Curtiss JN-4D Jenny, all of her stunt flying was done in aircraft using the Wright control system, which uses two side-mounted levers for pitch and roll, with top-mounted controls for throttle and yaw. This caused the closure of the Stinson School in 1917. Stinson was allowed to fly a Curtiss JN-4D "Jenny" and a Curtiss Stinson-Special (a single-seat version of the JN aircraft built to her specifications) for fundraising for the American Red Cross. The fledgling U.S. Postal Air Service was the only non-military flying operation allowed by the government and the only other venue for Stinson to fly. In 1918, Stinson approached Benjamin Lipsner, superintendent of the Post Office Department airmail operations, about undertaking a long-distance mail service flight from Chicago to New York City as a publicity stunt. The airplane flipped over on landing in a field and took several days to repair. Stinson then flew from Binghamton to New York City, completing the mail route. She designed a house for Hazel Hyde, founder of The Town School in Manhattan, New York City, who retired to Santa Fe; one for Dorothy McKibbin, "gatekeeper" of the Los Alamos atomic bomb project; one for Dr. Frank Mera, director of Sunmount Sanitarium; and for a few other notable Southwesterners. She also rented a home to Mary Colter, the famed Southwestern architect. One of the houses she designed belonged to anthropologist Sallie Wagner in the 1970s.

Death and honors After a long period as an invalid, she died in Santa Fe in 1977 at the age of 86. She and her husband Miguel are buried in Santa Fe National Cemetery. A replica of her 1918 Curtiss Stinson-Special is on display at the Alberta Aviation Museum in Edmonton. The second oldest general aviation airport in the United States, Stinson Municipal Airport (KSSF) in San Antonio, Texas, was named in the Stinson family's honor. A middle school in northwest San Antonio, Texas, Katherine Stinson Middle School, was named in her honor. In 2000, Stinson was inducted into the International Air & Space Hall of Fame at the San Diego Air & Space Museum. Katherine Stinson's biography is featured in CBS TV series The Henry Ford's Innovation Nation, episode 54 in the series. In 2019, Stinson was selected to the National Aviation Hall of Fame.