Viewing page 49 of 101

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

THE EVENING TRIBUNE, HORNELL, N.Y., SATURDAY, AUGUST 1, 1953

Woman Speaker Tells of Aviation In Early Period

Aviation in the early days was discussed by Blanche Stuart Scott at a luncheon meeting of Hornell Rotary Club yesterday.

The guest speaker, known professionally as "Roberta", directs women's programs for Radio Station WLEA, Hornell.

Mrs. Scott was taught to fly by Glenn H. Curtiss at Hammondsport. According to Frank Jacobs, program director who presided, Mrs. Scott was the first American woman to pilot an airplane; the first woman to make a long distance flight; the first woman passenger in an Army jet plane and the first woman to drive an automobile across the United States.

She knew the famed Wright brothers, aviation pioneers, whom she described as "deeply devout men."

"I believe if they had had an insight into the later use of planes as forces of destruction, they would have destroyed their plans," she said.

She said the struggles and hazards involved in perfecting aviation would be more than compensated if planes were used as instruments of progress and for the advancement of mankind.

Mrs. Scott is a member of the Board of Directors of "The Early Birds", an organization of persons who made their first flights before 1916.