324 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
September, 1911 
Flying as a Sport for Women 
By Stanley Yale Beach 
{"W 
x 
\! 
Sx find some new way in which she can vie 
we with mere man. Athletics, golf, swim- 
ming and tennis, and the running of auto- 
mobiles, have all been tried with success, 
and there is every indication that the new 
sport of flying will find favor with Amer- 
ican women even more rapidly than it has done with their 
sisters abroad. In fact, America’s first aviatress was flying 
at Mineola, L. I., a few months only after the first French 
women aviators had learned, or more than a year ago, to be 
exact. This lady, Mrs. Bessica Raiche, made flights in a 
Curtiss-type biplane of her own and her husband's manu- 
facture last summer at the Aeronautical Society’s aero- 
drome, and won the applause of all the aviation enthusiasts, 
who commemorated her flights with a gold medal set with 
jewels. She has helped construct several machines of dif- 
ferent types since then, and probably there is no other 
woman in the United States today who has so complete 
knowledge not only of 
flying, but of the con- 
struction of machines as 
well. 
Any one who has en- 
joyed a fast automobile 
nde on a peritie ctly 
smooth and dustless 
road, or a trip in a motor 
boat at twenty-five to 
thirty miles an hour in 
smooth water, can ap- 
preciate the exhilaration 
of piloting an aeroplane. 
The rush of air past 
one’s face, and the 
smooth, fast, even mo- 
tion — as steady as the 
movement of an electric 
launch on a mill-pond— 
make aeroplaning the 
most fascinating and ex- 
hilarating sport that has 
ever been devised. It is 
a sport that, even more 
than automobiling, — re- 
quires quick thinking and 
rapid action, for upon the decision what to do 
and the instant doing of it depends, in an emergency, the 
life of the aviator and the passengers. Fast driving of an 
automobile serves as excellent training preliminary to learn- 
ing to fly, and if possible this should be followed by several 
balloon trips, in order to get accustomed to floating high 
above the earth. While one seldom goes as high in an 
aeroplane as one customarily ascends in a balloon, the train- 
ing obtained and the knowledge of the appearance of the 
earth from above is invaluable. Had Ladis Lekewitch, the 
Russian aviator who recently flew across New York, had 
this knowledge he would not have mistaken the Jersey 
meadows for a pasture lot and landed in them when his 
motor stopped while he was 8,000 feet above Riverside 
Drive. High flying is a necessity when passing over dan- 
Photo by E, Levick 
Miss Quimby flying for her pilot’s license in a Bleriot-type monoplane 
gerous places, and ballooning is the safest and easiest way 
to practice for altitude work in an aeroplane. 
When a woman has once mastered an aeroplane, she will 
fly as fast or as high as any man. A woman enjoys the ex- 
hilaration of flight even more than does a man. Throwing 
caution to the winds, she will soar to great heights without 
thinking of the risks she takes. ‘Therefore, an aviatress 
should have a thorough training before she is allowed to 
fly where she listeth, like unto the winds themselves. 
This brings us to a consideration of the modern aeroplane 
and its ability to combat the wind. ‘There are two kinds of 
machines in use today—monoplanes and biplanes. The 
former is the type developed and in vogue in Europe, while 
the latter, made famous by the invention of the Wright 
brothers, is the one chiefly used in America. Glenn H. 
Curtiss has developed a biplane somewhat smaller and less 
cumbersome than the Wright, and has succeeded in equip- 
ping it with a single pontoon, as well as with wheels, so that 
one can start from or alight upon water as well as land, at 
will. He has christened 
the machine a “triad,” 
since it is good for trans- 
portation on ground, 
over water, or in air. In 
this machine, as in prac- 
tically all biplanes, the 
aviatress sits at the front 
of the lower plane, with 
the control wheel in her 
hand and with a V- 
shaped frame about her 
shoulders. If the ma- 
chine tips to one side or 
the other, all she has to 
do is to lean to the high 
side (which she does 
naturally). In so doing, 
she carries the frame 
with her, and this sets 
the ailerons, or hinged 
flaps, at the ends of the 
wings in the proper man- 
ner and rights the ma- 
chine. The Wright 
method is to warp the 
rear edges of the wings, 
which is accomplished by a lever. At the low side 
of the machine the rear edges of the wings, or planes, are 
bent downward, while at the high side they are flattened out. 
To steer to right or left the aviatress has only to turn the 
control wheel the same as in driving an automobile, while 
to rise she pulls it towards her, and to descend pushes 
it away. 
The control of a Blériot monoplane is slightly different. 
In this type of machine the motor and propeller are in front 
of the aviatress, who sits in the long body in line with 
the rear edge of the wings. Immediately in front of her 
stands a short post, with a tiny immovable wheel on top 
and a bell-shaped arrangement at the bottom. The post is 
mounted upon a universal joint within the bell, and the con- 
trol wires are attached to the latter. Side-tipping is cor- 
