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"All those who see me, and all who believe in me, share in the freedom I feel when I fly."

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Aviation Chronology: 1920s

  • Entries in grey refer to aviation and world events achievements not specific to women.

  • Entries in white refer to women's achievements.

  • Birthdates of female pilots/groundcrew, etc. are not given individual entries, but listed in the first entry for each woman.

  • Reference works are cited by code numbers, identified in the Bibliography.

  • 1929 Schneider Air Race

    Name Date(s) Notes Bibliography
    1920 1920 1920
    1920
    . January 16, 1920
    Sunday
    Prohibition goes into effect, catapulting gangsters like Al Capone into the limelight, and leading to the rise of organized crime.

    Pl-1
    Bessie Coleman

    November 9, 1920

    American.
    Bessie Coleman, unable to find someone in the US to train a black woman pilot, receives her passport on this day, as she intends to take lessons in France. She has been studying French for some time in preparation. Black millionaire newspaper proprietor Robert Abbott and his The Chicago Defender are her sponsors.
    Pl-1
    Bessie Coleman

    November 20, 1920 American.
    Bessie Coleman boards the SS Imperator, a 50,000 ton ocean liner headed for France.
    Pl-1
    Bessie Coleman

    November 25, 1920 American.
    The SS Imperator, and passenger Bessie Coleman, arrive in France.
    Pl-1
    1921 1921 1921
    1921
    Bessie Coleman

    June 15, 1921 American.
    Bessie Coleman receives a pilot's license fron the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI). She had studied at the Ecole d'Aviation des Freres Caudron, at Le Crotoy in Somme, near Rouen. Her first lessons are in a 27-ft biplane, a Nieuport Type 82.
    Pl-1
    Bessie Coleman

    September 16, 1921 American.
    Bessie Coleman boards a ship to return to the US.
    Pl-1
    1922 1922 1922
    1922
    Bessie Coleman

    February 28, 1922 American.
    Bessie Coleman arrives in France aboard the SS Paris, for a three-month tour of Europe. She will visit France and Germany, flying planes and being filmed doing so.
    Pl-1
    Bessie Coleman

    August 27, 1922 American.
    Bessie Coleman is to give a flying demonstration in the United States, at Glenn Curtiss Field in Garden City, Long Island. Due to bad weather, her performance is postponted to Labor Day.
    Pl-1
    Bessie Coleman

    September 3, 1922 American.
    Coleman performs the first public flight by an African-American woman in the United States. Black stuntman Hubert Fauntleroy Julian will perform a parachute jump from her plane
    Pl-1
    Bessie Coleman

    October 15, 1922 American.
    Coleman performs the first public flight by an African-American woman in Chicago. Adult tickets $1, children 25 cents.
    Pl-1
    1923 1923 1923
    1923
    Bessie Coleman

    February 4, 1923
    Sunday
    American.
    Coleman, who had recently purchases a Jenny, sets out to fly it to Santa Monica, and crashes, resulting in a fractured leg and three broken ribs. She will be in hospital for three months.
    Pl-1
    Bessie Coleman

    May 10, 1923
    Sunday
    American.
    Coleman leaves the hospital.
    Pl-1
    Bessie Coleman

    Labor Day, 1923
    Sunday
    American.
    Bessie Coleman is to give a performancer at an air show in Columbus, Ohio, but bad weather postpones the show.
    Pl-1
    Bessie Coleman

    September 9, 1923
    Sunday
    American.
    Bessie Coleman performs in an airshow in Columbus, Ohio. (There are other, white performers there as well). 10,000 audience members watch.
    Pl-1
    1925 1925 1925
    1925
    Bessie Coleman

    May, 1925
    Sunday
    American.
    Bessie Coleman has spent a year on the ground. In this month she returns to Texas from Chicago to resume her flying career.
    Pl-1
    Bessie Coleman

    June 18, 1925 American.
    The Houston Post-Dispatch states in an article that Bessie Coleman was "attracting attention all over the country for her efforts to interest African Americans in Aviation.".
    Pl-1
    Bessie Coleman

    June 19, 1925 American.
    First black woman pilot Bessie Coleman flies in an airshow in Texas. (60 years earlier to the day, in Galveston, TX, Union troops announced the end of the Civil War. This was Juneteenth.)
    Pl-1
    Bessie Coleman

    August 29, 1925 American.
    Bessie Coleman had promised that a parachustist would perform a jump from her plane, but Elizia Delworth backs out. The next Sunday, Coleman herself will parachute out of a plane piloted by another.
    Pl-1
    Melli Beese December 22, 1925 German.
    Melli Beese commits suicide by shooting herself with a revolver. She is 39 years old. Unable to recovery financially after the war, aviation is closed to her, and she is too depressed to continue.
    Le-1
    1926 1926 1926
    1926
    Bessie Coleman

    February 3, 1926 American.
    Bessie Coleman writes to the Norman Studios in Arlington, Florida, explaining that she's written a movie of her life and would like to see it produced. R.E. Norman white, was an independent director who made films featuring positive images of blacks on screen. [Due to lack of funds, the movie will not be made.]
    Pl-1
    Bessie Coleman

    April 27, 1926 American.
    Bessie Coleman boards a train for Jacksonville, Florida, where she is to perform in an airshow.
    Pl-1
    Bessie Coleman

    April 28, 1926 American.
    Bessie Coleman's plane, purchased just a few days earlier through funds provided by a supporter, is a Jenny biplane which could produce only 60 horsepower, rather than the 90 described in the specs. William Wills, 24-years-old, a white mechanic employed by the Curtiss company, flies it down.
    Pl-1
    Bessie Coleman

    April 30, 1926
    Friday
    American.
    Bessie Coleman, John Betsch (publicity manager for the Negro Welfare League), and William Wills go to Paxton Field for a practice flight. (The airshow itself will not be until May 1).

    Wills pilots the craft, Coleman is in the rear, seatbelt undone, as she wants to be able to look over the side to scope out sights to land via parachute - she intends to make a jump during her show.

    The old plane begins a nose dive from 3,000 feet. At 2,000 feet, Bessie Coleman falls out of the plane to her death. The plane itself crashes in a nearby farm field. Wills is trapped in the wreckage, and before he can be rescued, John Betsch lights a cigarette. A spark ignites gasoline fumes from the plane, and Wills is burned to death in the wreckage. Betsch is arrested, but it is later deemed that he did not deliberately set fire to the plane.

    Investigators find a wrench in the wreckage of Coleman's plane - jammed into the control gears. It is assumed that Wills had accidently left the wrench in a spot, such that when he tilted the plane, it slid into the gears and jammed them.

    Pl-1
    Bessie Coleman

    May 2, 1926
    American.
    Bessie Coleman's bdy is taken by train to Orlando, Florida. Jacksonville citizens pay the $360 cost.
    Pl-1
    Bessie Coleman

    May 5, 1926
    Wednesday
    American.
    Bessie Coleman's body arrives in Chicago via train.
    Pl-1
    Bessie Coleman

    May 7, 1926
    Wednesday
    American.
    The funeral for Bessie Coleman is held at Pilgrim Baptist Church in Chicago. 3,500 mourners gather on the sidewalks outside the church.
    Pl-1
    1927 1927 1927
    1927
    Charles Lindbergh May 20, 1927 American.
    Charls Lingdbergh starts off on his solo flight across the Atlantic.
    Le-1
    Lyubov "Luba" Golanchikova June 1927 Russian.
    Luba and her husband Boris Philipoff (at one point the "Bread King of Russia"), are living in New York City, under the name Philips. Luba flies a trimotor Fokker in an attempt to set an altitude record over New York. However, a male pilot, Lieutenant W. L. Stulzt, pilots the takeoff and landing.
    Le-1
    Lyubov "Luba" Golanchikova August 1927 Russian.
    The New York Times reports that Luba is planning an Atlantic flight "for the glory of it." She had signed a 1-year contract with Oliver Morosco, a theatrical producer. However, she is not able to bring the flight to fruition.
    Le-1
    1928 1928 1928
    1928
    Amelia Earhart

    June 17, 1928
    Sunday
    American.
    The Friendship, with Amelia Earhart as passenger, Wilmer Stutz as pilot and Louis Gordon as mechanic, takes off from Trepassey, Newfoundland, Canada.
    Ea-1
    Amelia Earhart

    June 18, 1928
    Sunday
    American.
    The Friendship, with Amelia Earhart as passenger, Wilmer Stutz as pilot and Louis Gordon as mechanic, lands in Burry Port, Wales. The trio are feted for a few days in Wales and England.
    Ea-1
    1929 1929 1929
    1929
    Amelia Earhart

    May, 1929 American.
    Amelia Earhart earns her air transport license. She is only the fourth woman to earn such a license, joining Ruth Nichols, Phoebe Omlie and Lady Mary Heath.
    Ge-1

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