Monday, May 29, 2023

Blanche Noyes (1900-1981) had 75,000 air markers constructed as chief of the FAA Air Marking Staff in the 1930s and 40s





(on Kennedy's immediate left (to the right of him from our perspective))
 
Her time as a pilot and co-pilot, beginning in 1928, back when flying was visual only, daylight only, with a compass and dead reckoning to guide pilots on long distance flights. She was a Broadway actress prior to learning to fly.

In 1930, she took 90 year old John D Rockefeller for his only airplane ride

Her husband, ewey R. Noyes, the chief pilot of the Standard Oil Company of Ohio, started his flying career as an airmail pilot, but he died in a crash caused by fog. 

She was among the first ten women to receive a transport pilot's license. In 1929, she became Ohio's first licensed female pilot.

In 1936, she teamed up as co-pilot to Louise Thaden and won the Bendix Trophy Race in the first year women were allowed to compete against men. They set a new world record of 14 hours, 55 minutes flying from New York City to Los Angeles

the objective of the Air Marking Group of the Bureau of Air Commerce, funded by the Works Progress Administration, was to aid aerial navigation by writing the name of the nearest town at 15-mile  intervals, on the roofs of prominent buildings if possible, on the ground in white paint when not.


This program of identifying airports to pilots was the first U.S. government program conceived, planned and directed by a woman with an all-woman staff.

With America's entry into World War II in December 1941, however, for security reasons those had to be blacked out, roughly 13,000 sites they had marked.

During World War II, Mrs. Noyes worked for the War Department lecturing new military pilots, she was a 1st Lt, in the Texas Air National Guard

 After the war, as head of the air marking division of the Civil Aeronautics Administration, she oversaw their restoration and added further navigational aids. According to the National Air and Space Museum, "For many years, she was the only woman pilot allowed to fly a government aircraft."

She is in the Aviation Hall of Fame



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