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The group she joined was scheduled to fly at the Illinois State Fair in Springfield on June 21 and 22. Mrs. Clark decided to make a test flight on June 17 just at dusk. The visibility was poor, and one wing of her biplane struck a tree limb. The aircraft crashed to the ground, pinning Ms. Clark beneath it. She died on her way to the hospital.

The Moisant School at Hempstead, New York, unlike some of the other aviation schools in the country at that time, welcomed women as pupils. One of the many women trained there was Bernetta Miller. The Moisants had studied the work of the French with monoplanes, so instead of the biplanes that most other aviation schools were using, the Moisant instructors taught their pupils in Bleriot-type monoplane.

Ms. Miller received her license on September 25, 1912, and joined the Moisant International Aviators. Because they flew monplanes, the group was invited to the U.S. Army's aviation field at College Park, Maryland, to demonstrate that type of aircraft. In October 1912, Ms. Miller flew the first monoplane demonstration flight before U.S. Government officials; she was perhaps selected for this first flight on the idea that if a woman could fly this tricky aircraft, anyone could.