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A22 Friday, Oct. 30, 1970...R1 The Washington Post
... R1

Early Birds Relive Flying Era

By Martin Weil
Washington Post Staff Writer

Georgia (Tiny) Broadwick, 77, parachuted from an air-plane in Los Angeles in 1913 and still is waiting to hear about any woman who jumped any earlier.

"They haven't found anyone so far," she said. The 5-foot San Diego resident said she made her first jump in 1908 from a hot air balloon at a carnival. 

The last of her 900 exhibition jumps from both balloons and airplanes came in 1922 when the novelty wore off for the public. She now misses jumping "very much."

Miss Broadwick, who came to the carnival world from a Henderson, N.C., cotton mill, was interviewed yesterday at the convention here of the Early Birds of Aviation, a group of those who flew solo before Dec. 17, 1916.

The cutoff date is set 13 years after the Wright Brothers' initial flight, but before America's entry into World War 1, which rapidly expanded the ranks of the nation's aviators.

Organized in 1928 with about 600 members, the pioneer flying group now has about 130 persons on its rolls.

About 30 were here yesterday for the start of the three-day annual meeting with headquarters at the Washington Hotel.

Some walking stiffly, most of them gray or white-haired and all from 70 to 90 years of age, they are the survivors of the daring young men and women who flew, or glided or jumped through the air in the first two decades of this century. 

Some, like 76-year-old Waldo Waterman of San Diego, are still flying.

Waterman made his firs solo flight July 1, 1909, in San Diego, in a glider he built from plans published in Popular Mechanics magazine.

His most recent solo flight was July 1, in a Cessna 150.

Celebrates Solo Anniversery [[Anniversary]] 

"I always celebrate the anniversary of my first solo," said Waterman, a former aeronautical engineer and airline pilot.

Roy Waite, 86, of Norwood, Mass., recalled the day 58 years ago when the made one of the world's first aerial bombing runs. In 1912, as a stunt to promote interest in aviation, he said, he dropped 20 two-pound bags of flour from an airplane onto two battleships