Thought I would share a piece I wrote recently:
For sheer amazing heroics there are few people who can match this… manicurist. She was also a beauty shop owner, a laundress, a chili cook, a college drop-out and a farm hand.
And for a brief time, from 1921 to her death in 1926, she was “Queen Bess”, the first African-American woman pilot and a barnstorming sensation. Bessie Colman was someone who not only had a dream and achieved that dream, but was determined to open a path for others.
She was born in rural Texas in 1894 into a large family with a small farm. Her father left when she was a child, and so she was raised by her mother and aunts. They supplemented their income by picking cotton. The hard dreary work inspired her to seek something else. She excelled in school, and when the time came, she went to college.
The money didn’t last, so she headed for the bright lights of Chicago, where her brothers had already relocated. It was while she was working in a barber shop as a manicurist that it happened.
Men were coming back from France with stories about flying in the war. She started dreaming about flying. Her brother teased her that French women were better because they were pilots already, and that was all it took. She applied to every flight school in the US. Every one turned her down. Not only was her skin color a barrier, she was a woman.
So she decided to go to France. She studied French, saved her money, and with the help of a newspaperman alert to the promotional opportunities, she made the trip to France, where she became the first black woman to earn an international pilots license.
When she came home, she discovered that there was no work for black women pilots. So after a year of working to save more money, she went back to Europe and studied with Anthony Fokker and the top test pilots for the Fokker Aircraft Company.
She returned to America and quickly became a sensation. Her beauty and flamboyance was like a magnet to newspapers, and everywhere she went, from New York to L.A., she drew huge crowds. Bessie was popular with both white and black audiences. In fact, she refused to perform unless the audiences were desegregated and everyone attending used the same gates.
Like most other barnstormers she flew mostly Curtis JN-4 “Jennys” left from the war. And since most of them were crappy war surplus, many were worn out. Although the Jenny was a popular plane at the time, it was mostly because there wasn’t much else to choose from. It had a top speed of around 75 MPH, and the engine was rough running and often stalled, which placed it in the same reliability and performance class as a second hand Yugo. Over 20% of the over 6000 Jennys produced were destroyed in flight training, which really sucked because flight instruction was what the Jenny was designed for. At an air show in L.A. her plane stalled and crashed. Bessie suffered a broken leg and ribs, but most importantly, she had no plane.
So it was back to work, but this time she had the advantage of fame. She filled lecture halls throughout the Midwest, and opened a beauty shop, where women could get their hair styled by the famous “Queen Bess.” Gradually she saved enough money for a plane, another Curtis Jenny with the OX-5 engine.
Think for a moment just exactly how messed up this was.
Here we have a pioneer in every sense. She overcame poverty, prejudice and sexism to become not just the first black American to earn a pilot’s license, but an incredibly skilled barnstormer who was able to take a rickety contraption made of firewood and canvas, powered by a 90 HP engine (13 fewer ponies than that second hand Yugo I mentioned earlier) through acrobatic loops and figure eights. She wasn’t just the first black stunt pilot, she was one of the best stunt pilots in the world. So how exactly did she make enough money to get a new plane?
By twisting hair.
And it wasn’t even a good plane. When the seller delivered it to her, the pilot had to make three forced landings on the way. It was early 1926, and the Curtiss Jenny was simply at the end of its useful life. By the end of the same year, the Air Commerce Act was in effect, and the Jenny simply could not pass the safety inspections.
Even her normally supportive family was nervous about this flying deathtrap. On April 30th, 1926, after extensive work on the aircraft, Bessie and her co-pilot William Wills made a test flight to scout where Bessie would finish her show the next day by parachuting into the crowd. She unbuckled her seat belt and stood in the cockpit in order to see the fairground below. She was five foot two, and could barely see over the side.
Later it was determined that a wrench was left under the front seat. It slid into the gears of the OX-5 engine, which were not protected by a cover. The plane flipped end-for end. Bessie was thrown from the plane, and her co-pilot was killed in the crash.
Her funeral in Florida was attended by over 5,000 people, and when her body was shipped to Chicago for burial, over 10,000 people filed past her coffin to pay respects.
Her last dream of a school for black aviators was never fulfilled, but she remained an inspiration. In 1929 the Bessie Coleman Aero Club opened in Los Angeles, and in 1931 held the first all-black air show.
We all know about Charles Lindbergh, Amelia Earhart and Wiley Post, but Bessie Coleman has been largely forgotten. Which is a shame, because among the towering figures of early aviation, 5’2″ Bessie Coleman stands with the best of them.
The full article is at http://www.roguebladesentertainment.com/...
