Viewing page 32 of 68

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

snapped, the aircraft crashed, and Blanche suffered an injured shoulder. If the plane had not fallen into a swamp, her injuries might have been worse. 

This injury kept her grounded almost a year, but in 1914 she went back to stunt flying and also made test flights for Curtiss and Glenn Martin.

But by 1916 she began to be bothered by the public's morbid interest in crashes and their seeming disappointment at air meets where no one was killed or injured. She was also frustrated that there seemed to be no place in aviation for women engineers or mechanics, so at age twenty-seven Blanche Scott retired. 

Although Bessica Raiche's solo flight did not occur until September 16, 1910, two weeks after Blanche Scott's, Ms. Raiche's flight was considered definitely "intentional," and on October 13 the Aeronautical Society honored her with a dinner at which the Society's president Hudson Maxim presenter her a gold medal inscribed "First Woman Aviator of America, Bessica Raiche."

Bessica Raiche had been considered in her time one of the "new" women: she drove an auto, wore bloomers while playing sports, and took active part in such masculine activities as shooting and swimming. She was also an accomplished musician, 
[[margin note]] My God [[/margin note]]