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[[caption]] AVIATION FIGURE — Mrs. Blanche Stuart Scott, right, chats with her Napa friend, Mrs. Mary Fox Prescott, 1701 F Street, as they reminisce about old times.  Mrs. Scott, the first woman ever to solo an airplane, is now consultant for the United States Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson Base near Dayton, Ohio.  (Register Photo) [[/caption]]

First Woman Solo Flier Here Seeking Relics Of Early Flying

Mrs. Blanche Stuart Scott, whose solo flight in 1910 was the first made by a woman in the United States, visited Napa Tuesday on a two-fold mission.  Mrs. Scott, one of the nation's top aviation pioneers and now consultant for the United States Air Force Museum at Wright-Patterson Base near Dayton, Ohio, came here primarily to visit her lifelong friend, Mrs. Mark Fox Prescott, 1701 F Street.  She is touring the nation in her capacity as museum consultant, announcing that the institution is now open to the public, and seeking aviation relics suitable for museum display.

Mrs. Scott announced her quest as a "treasure hunt," stating that she is looking for anything pertaining to aviation history "from a propellor or a strut to a while plane."  She declared that reconstruction crews at the museum can reproduce the remainder of an historic plane, even if only a few pieces of the original are left.

It was 45 years ago that Mrs. Scott learned to fly under the tutelage of the Wright Brothers.  Thereafter, she earned a pioneer's niche in the aviation world, and counted among her close friends the Wrights, Glenn Martin, Alexander De Seversky, the famed Billy Mitchell and other immortals of flying.  She was also the first woman to drive an automobile across the nation, driving from New York to San Francisco in 1910.  In 1912, she was the first woman pilot to take a passenger on a flight.

Mrs. Scott even today keeps her hand in flying at the age of 63.  She has been aloft recently in an Air Force jet and also in a helicopter.

Her visit here followed a telephone call made to her hotel in San Francisco by Mrs. Prescott, who had learned of her arrival on the west coast. The two, who had been neighbors in Hollywood, had not seen each other for 23 years.  Mrs. Scott drove here from Hamilton Field, and before her return there was to visit with Mrs. H. H. (Hap) Arnold, widow of the famed general, in Sonoma.

Describing her search for historical aviation items, "a great success," Mrs. Scott is to leave for Dayton on December 14.

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[[caption]] FIRST WOMAN TO FLY — It was in 1910 that Mrs. Blanch Stuart Scott first piloted a plane alone.  She looked like this then. [[/caption]]