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L.A. Times Oct. 5/55

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RECALLS THE GOOD  OLD DAYS - Blanche Stewart Scott, first American woman to make solo flight in plane, recalls past as she seeks historical aviation items for U.S. Air Force Museum of Dayton, O. 
Times photo
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Pioneer Feminine Flier Seeks Aviation Treasure

Blanche Scott, First American Woman to
Make Solo Flight, Is Here on Museum Quest

  The blond aviator who wowed 'em in an aviation meet at Dominguez Field here in 1912 with her stunts in an 80-m.p.h. Martin biplane was back in Los Angeles yesterday - still doing her bit for aviation.
  Miss Blanche Stewart Scott, first American woman to make a solo flight in a plane, admits she "ain't what she used to be" more than 40 years ago when she was the darling of early-day aviation enthusiasts.

  Quit in 1916

  "I quit flying professionally in 1916, she remarked. "It broke my heart but it made my mother happy."
  At 63 she is hot on the trail of old types of aircraft and engines and other historically significant items from the pioneer days of the age of fight which can be added to the U.S. Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, O.
  In her present capacity as consultant to the museum, Miss Scott is more or less treasure hunting her way around the country, she said in an interview at the Biltmore where she is staying for a couple of weeks while she combs the Southern California area for early aviatiana.
  I'm looking madly for an old World War I Jenny and for one of the old pusher-type biplanes and just about anything else that has something to do with pioneer aviation," declared Miss Scott, her eyes as full of sparkle as on Sept. 6, 1910, when she made the first feminine solo flight in America at Hammondsport, N.Y., after taking lessons from Glenn Curtiss.
  Anything is grist for her collector's craze - planes, engines, patent records, collections of magazines, paintings, blueprints, aviation meet programs, etc.
  Whatever she can get her hands on -most items are donated - the Air Force packs up and ships back to the museum for cataloging and display to the public.

             Has Had Luck
  In her 11 months of treasure hunting, she has picked up half a dozen old planes, 13 or 14 engines and hundreds of documents, photographs and items of clothing.
  "Oh yes," she added, "I'm very much on the lookout for one of those pointed cork helmets some of the early pilots wore. Can't seem to find one anywhere."
  Miss Scott hopes Southern California attics, garages and barns will disgorge their aviation treasurers for her. 
  A lot of interesting things have "just disappeared." 
  "I'm thinking abut my own lucky red sweater," she recalled. "I wore it over my satin coveralls when Glenn Curtiss was teaching me to fly. I didn't have it on the day I had my bad accident. Now I don't know where it is. Pity."
  One of the nicest things Miss Scott remembered about aviation is the equality that aviators enjoyed.
  "Women had equality in aviation before they got the vote," she said with satisfaction. "On the field I never heard the expression 'woman flier' in the tone men adopt toward 'women drivers.'"
  Miss Scott plans on being the last survivor of the Early Birds, composed of pilots who flew prior to 1916.
  "I'm so healthy I'll be the last one," she remarked.  "Anyway, this treasure-hunt collecting keeps me young."
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