09/04/2026
The First Female Pilot in the USA!
https://www.thisdayinaviation.com/2-september-1910/
On September 2, 1910 after receiving flight instruction from Glenn Curtiss, Miss Blanche Scott took a Curtiss biplane into the air, solo, becoming the first woman pilot in the USA. She took off from Lake Keuka Field, Hammondsport, New York.
She later wrote:
"It was customary in those days to have the student “cut grass” for many days, to become thoroughly familiar with the controls. As the plane was a one seater, no instructor would go along to teach the student. There was a governor on the engine to hold the power down and keep the plane on the ground. My fourth trip down the field “grass cutting” caught a side wind and the plane soared about ten feet in the air. It felt like a hundred feet. Curtiss was alarmed, because at that stage in aviation an injured or killed woman would have been the worst publicity. However, and perhaps because I didn’t know enough to be afraid, I landed safely. Two days later, I asked Curtiss to take the governor off the engine, and he finally agreed. I stepped into the little old 35 hp ship, waved a flippant good-bye and took right off, flew around the field and made a good landing. I have never found that any woman antedated that flight."
Mrs.Scott would go on to become a professional exhibition pilot as well as a test pilot for Glenn Curtiss, also a first in that field. She is said to have earned as much as $5,000 per week with Curtiss, nearly $133,000 in 2018 U.S. dollars.
On 6 September 1948, Blanche Scott would become the first woman to fly in a jet-powered aircraft when she rode with Major Charles “Chuck” Yeager, Lockheed TF-80C Shooting Star (Also Known as the T-33A).
Blanche Stuart Scott died at Genesee Hospital in Rochester, 12 January 1970. Her remains were interred at the Riverside Cemetery, Rochester, New York.
