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the first transcontinental automobile trip ever made by a woman. As she passed through Dayton, Ohio, she saw the activities at the Wright School, and while she was in California, she had her first airplane ride. The pilot was Charles F. Willard, Glenn Curtiss' first pupil.

Ms. Scott's cross-country trip had gained her national attention, and she was approached by Jerome Fanciulli, head of the Curtiss Exhibition Company, who asked if she would consider learning to fly and performing with the Curtiss team at air shows and exhibitions. She agreed, and went to the Curtiss Company's Keuka Lake Field at Hammondsport, New York, for instruction.

Glenn Curtiss was not at all enthusiastic about women learning to fly. But since Fanciulli had sent her, Curtiss himself agreed to give her lessons. She was the first and only woman ever taught by Curtiss personally. On September 2, 1910, Ms. Scott made the first solo flight by an American woman. Whether this flight was intentional or accidental is still open to speculation. Blanche Scott may have become impatient with Curtiss' distrust of women as pilots and decided to show him what she could do. He had indeed blocked