15 Facts About Blanche Scott

Blanche Stuart Scott was born on April 8,1884, in Rochester, New York, to Belle and John Scott.

Blanche Scott's father was a successful businessman who manufactured and sold patent medicine.

Blanche Scott's father bought a car and she drove it about the city in a time before there were minimum age restrictions on driving.

In 1910 Blanche Scott became the second woman, after Alice Huyler Ramsey, to drive an automobile across the United States and the first driving westwards from New York City to San Francisco, California.

Blanche Scott was the only woman to receive instruction directly from Curtiss.

Blanche Scott fitted a limiter on the throttle of Scott's airplane to prevent it gaining enough speed to become airborne while she practiced taxiing on her own.

Blanche Scott was the first woman to fly at a public event in America.

Blanche Scott's exhibition flying earned her the nickname "Tomboy of the Air".

Blanche Scott became an accomplished stunt pilot known for flying upside down and performing "death dives", diving from an altitude of 4000 feet and suddenly pulling up only 200 feet from the ground.

In 1912 Blanche Scott contracted to fly for Glenn Martin and became the first female test pilot when she flew Martin prototypes before the final blueprints for the aircraft had been made.

Blanche Scott wrote, produced and performed on radio shows aired in California and Rochester.

On September 6,1948, Blanche Scott became the first American woman to fly in a jet when she was the passenger in a TF-80C piloted by Chuck Yeager.

In 1954 Blanche Scott began working for what was originally known as the United States Air Force Museum, helping to acquire early aviation materials.

Blanche Scott died on Monday, January 12,1970, at Genesee Hospital in Rochester, New York, at age 84.

In 2005, Blanche Scott was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.