PEACHTREE CITY, USA – For Women’s History Month, Aventure would like to remember Blanche Stuart Scott. Born April 8, 1884, in Rochester, New York, she was possibly the first American woman aviator.
In 1910 Scott became the second woman to drive an automobile across the U.S. The publicity brought her to the attention of Jerome Fanciulli and Glenn Curtiss, who gave her flying lessons.
While she practiced taxiing by herself, it’s believed a gust of wind lifted the biplane, causing her to fly to an altitude of forty feet before making a gentle landing.
Her short and possibly unintentional flight credited her the first woman to pilot and solo in an airplane in the U.S. by the Early Birds of Aviation. Ten days later, a flight by Bessica Medlar Raiche was accredited as first by the Aeronautical Society of America at the time.
Scott subsequently became a professional pilot, and made her debut as a member of the Curtiss exhibition team. She became an accomplished stunt pilot known for flying upside down and performing “death dives” — diving from 4000 feet and suddenly pulling up only 200 feet from the ground.
Scott died in 1970 in Rochester, at age 84. In 1980, the U.S. Postal Service issued an air mail stamp in her honor. In 2005, she was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame.
