Iris Louise (McPhetridge) Thaden (1905 - 1979)

Born 12 Nov 1905 in Bentonville, Benton, Arkansas, United States

Wife of Herbert (Von Thaden) Thaden — married 2 Jul 1928 in Reno, Washoe, Nevada, United States

Died 9 Nov 1979 at age 73 in High Point, Guilford, North Carolina, United States

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Biography

Louise (McPhetridge) Thaden is Notable.

Iris Louise McPhetridge was born on November 12, 1905 in Bentonville, Benton County, Arkansas.^[1][2] She was educated in the Bentonville public school system.^[1] As a young girl, her father taught her to hunt, fish, and fix a car. She was raised on the family farm and had one sister. She discovered an early interest in aviation long before learning to fly, and a ride in a plane with a barnstormer fueled her desire to fly.^[1]

After graduating high school, she attended the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Arkansas from 1921 to 1926 and studied journalism, physical education, and pre-medical major.^[2] She left college without a degree, moving to Wichita, Kansas, to work for Jack Turner, a local businessman and aviation booster. There she worked as a sales clerk, sold coal, fuel oil, and building materials.^[1] Turner introduced her to Walter Beach, and she was offered a job as a salesperson and office manager with Beech's dealership in Oakland, California.^[3][1][2] As part of her salary, she was given free pilot's lessons and earned her pilot's certificate in 1928, number 850, signed by Orville Wright. She became the first and only female pilot on Beech Aircraft's sales staff.^[1][2]

Upon gaining her pilot's license, Louise became the first and only pilot to hold the women's altitude, solo endurance, and speed records simultaneously.^[1][2] She set the women's altitude record (20,260 feet) on December 7, 1928, the solo endurance record on March 16–17, 1929 (twenty-two hours, three minutes, twenty-eight seconds), and the speed record on April 18, 1929 (156 mph).^[1][3][2]

While in California, Louise met Herbert Von Thaden, a former United States Army pilot and engineer, who was developing one of America's first all-metal aircraft.^[1] They were married on July 21, 1928 in Reno, Nevada.^[4][1]

During her aviation career, she competed and won against fellow aviators Amelia Earhart, Pancho Barnes, Blanche Noyes, and others in the first all-women's transcontinental race, the National Women's Air Derby held on August 19-26 1929.^{[2][5][6][7][8]} Later that year, Louise, Amelia Earhart, and others founded the Ninety-Nines, an international organization for female pilots. Thaden served as vice-president and secretary of the organization, founded on November 2, 1929.^{[6][2][9][10]}

Thaden teamed up with Frances Marsalis to set a new refueling endurance record of 196 hours over Long Island, New York, on August 14-22, 1932.^[1] The pair made seventy-eight air-to-air refueling maneuvers. Food, water, oil, and fuel were passed down to the two by a rope from another aircraft.^{[1][11][12][13]} They made a series of live radio broadcasts from the aircraft, and the press dubbed the event "the flying boudoir" and gained national attention.^{[1][11][9][14]}

During the Great Depression, Thaden organized the National Air Marking Program with the Bureau of Air Commerce from 1934 to 1935. The program promoted the creation and marking of airfields and landmarks across the nation.^[15][1]

In 1934, the Bendix Trophy and National Air Races banned women from competing after a crash that claimed the life of pilot Florence Klingensmith.^[16] After the ban was lifted in 1935, Thaden and co-pilot Blanche Noyes became the first women to win the Bendix Transcontinental Air Race, on September 4, 1936.^[17][1] The two women set a new transcontinental record, but believing they had flown too slow to win, they had no ideal they had won, until swarms of people surrounded their plane.^[1]

Thaden won aviation's highest honor given to a female pilot, the Harmon Trophy, in April 1937.^[1] She retired a year later from competition. In 1951, the Bentonville airport was renamed Louise M. Thaden Field in her honor. She was a founding inductee in the Arkansas Aviation Hall of Fame and a member of the Smithsonian Institution's Aviation Hall of Fame. She returned to Arkansas for the rededication of Thaden Field, and Governor David Pryor declared August 22, 1976, as Louise M. Thaden Day.^[1] She died of a heart attack in High Point, North Carolina, on November 9, 1979.^[1][2][3][9]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 1.12 1.13 1.14 1.15 1.16 1.17 1.18} Seibert, Rob., Clinton Presidential Library. Encyclopedia of Arkansas, last updated 1 Jul 2022. "Louise McPhetridge Thaden (1905-1979)." Accessed 5 Mar 2023.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 2.8} Wikipedia Contributor. "Louise Thaden." Accessed 5 Mar 2023.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2} Britannica Contributor. "Louise McPhetridge Thaden." Accessed 5 Mar 2023.
4. ↑ This Day in Aviation - Important Dates in Aviation History. "This day in History 7 December 1928." Accessed 5 Mar 2023.
5. ↑ Los Angeles Chapter, The Ninety-Nines International Organization of Women Pilots. "1929 - 1st Women's National Air Derby." Accessed 5 Mar 2023.
6. ↑ ^{6.0 6.1} Ninety-Nines, Inspiring Women Pilots Since 1929. "Women in Air Racing." Accessed 5 Mar 2023.
7. ↑ The Henry Ford, Past Forward - Activating The Henry Ford Archive of Innovation. "The 1929 Women's Poweder Puff Air Derby." Accessed 5 Mar 2023.
8. ↑ ref name='visitnaha'>National Aviation Heritage Area. "1929 National Women's Air Derby." Accessed 5 Mar 1929.
9. ↑ ^{9.0 9.1 9.2} Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, Barron Hilton Pioneers of Flight, Founding of the Ninety-Nines. "Founding of the Ninety-Nines." Accessed 5 Mar 2023.
10. ↑ Oklahoma Historical Society, The Encylopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture. "Ninety-Nines." Accessed 5 Mar 2023.
11. ↑ ^{11.0 11.1} National Aviation Hall of Fame. "Louise McPhetridge Thaden." Accessed 5 Mar 2023.
12. ↑ Arkansas Women's Hall of Fame. "2019 Inductee." Accessed 5 Mar 2023.
13. ↑ Wanda Langley. "Glory & Appendicitis." Wanda Langley - Accessed 3/5/2023. "Endurance fliers Louise Thaden and Frances Marsalis triumphed over exhaustion—and media hype—in 1932."
14. ↑ The Arkansas Aviation Historical Society. "LOUISE MCPHETRIDGE THADEN." Accessed 5 Mar 2023.
15. ↑ Erisman, Fred. Purdue University, Purdue e-Pubs, Purdue Studies in Aeronautics and Astronautics. "In Their Own Words: Forgotten Women Pilots of Early Aviation." Accessed 5 Mar 2023.
16. ↑ Wikipedia Contributor. "Women's Air Derby." Accessed 5 Mar 2023.
17. ↑ Gills, Bieke, University of Windsor. "[https://scholar.uwindsor.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1261&context=etd Pioneers of Flight: An Analysis of Gender Issues in United States Civilian (Sport) and Commercial Aviation 1920-1940]." Accessed 5 Mar 2023.

• See Also:
  • Wikidata: Item Q1872199
  • Whittaker, Helen DeWitt. Sisters in the Air: Louise McPhetridge Thaden and Phoebe Fairgrave Omlie
  • "North Carolina Deaths, 1931-1994," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FGTC-LH2 : 10 February 2018), Roy Mcphetridge in entry for Louise Mcphetridge Thaden, 09 Nov 1979; citing High Point, Guilford, North Carolina, cn 40287, State Department of Archives and History, Raleigh; FHL microfilm 1,984,532.