Commerce's National Air Marking Program example essay topic

Phoebe Fairgrave Omlie When I Was Born? I was born in Des Moines, Iowa on December 21, 1902 How I Got Started. One day before my high school graduation, I saw my first air show and fell in love with it. I started to hang out at the local airfield, begging the manager until he finally agreed to let one of his pilots take me up for a ride. His instructions were to give me the works, everything that would make me sick in their mind. How I Got Started.

(Con.) It didn't work and I fell absolutely in love with it. An inheritance from my grandfather gave me means to buy my own plane, named Curtiss JN-4 D or jenny. I figured out a way to make money with my investment. My Life.

I began my career in the early 1920's when barnstorming was one of the few ways to make a living by flying. I went into the local offices of the fox moving picture company and proposed a deal to recoup my investment suggesting fox could film my wing-walking and making parachute jumps. My Life. (Con.) I came away with a contract to do stunts for fox films such as the Saturday matinee serial, the perils of Pauline. My Career I hired a pilot to fly my jenny for me. His name was Vernon Omlie, a 25-year-old veteran of the great war.

He'd been a military flight instructor and wanted to make his fortune in aviation. He flew for the Curtiss company for $25 a week. My Career. (Con.) After working for me for a few weeks, he quit his job with Curtiss to become my personal pilot. In 1920, there were few opportunities for men in aviation and fewer still for women. So I learned to walk wings, hang by my teeth below the plane, dance the Charleston on the top wing, and parachute.

My Career. (Con.) After a couple months of intensive practice, the Phoebe Fairgrave flying circus was born. It was the first flying circus owned by a woman. The show featured me wearing riding breeches, a silk shirt, a goggled leather helmet and basketball shoes with suction soles.

The Thrill Show Once airborne, I would climb to the top of the upper wing and ride there while Vernon put the plane through a couple loops. I told the press that wing-walking wasn't much different than climbing up on a table: "You just shimmy up the strut, grab hold of something on the top wing, throw your knee up there, and climb up". The Thrill Show. (Con.) I had a special mouth-piece attached to the end of a rope, which I gripped between my teeth as I dangled and twirled in the plane's slipstream while Vernon swooped low over the crowd. The Show Stopper The showstopper was my own invention: a double parachute drop. The folded parachute was tied to a wing strut.

I would crawl out on the wing, put on my harness and jump, as I fell the chute would open. To keep the lines from tangling, the parachute had been interleaved with newspapers. The Show Stopper. (con.) Just a safety precaution, but also a crowd pleaser as the newspapers came out like confetti. Once free of the plane, I would cut the lines of my chute loose and free fall. This was to make the crowd think that my chute had failed. I would wait until the last possible minute, then pull the cord on a second chute just in time before I hit the ground.

Profit Thousands would come out to see the show, but it was difficult to ensure that all of them paid to see it. The real money was made in encouraging the crowd to take rides at $5 or $10 a trip. Sometimes we would make less than $10 profit a week. Spare Time In December, we went to Memphis where I spent much of the winter doing speaking engagements about my life in aviation and in the movies.

Married Life I was married to Vernon Omlie in February 1922 at the age of 19. I changed the name of the side of the plane to read The Phoebe Omlie Flying Circus. Since no man pilot would take me on as a student my husband taught me how to fly. We were the first to demonstrate the nonmilitary value of airplanes by flying mercy missions during forest fire or flood emergencies and serving as fire spotters.

Married Life. (Con.) In Memphis, Tennessee, we also operated the first airport in the state and one of the nation's first flying schools. My Timeless Accomplishments I was the first woman to earn a federal pilot's license and the first to receive an aircraft mechanic's license. I went on to win numerous races against male pilots, set a world altitude record, win numerous races, and became the first woman to cross the Rockies in a light aircraft.

A Big Mistake During the Women's Air Derby in 1929 we raced from Santa Monica, California to Cleveland, Ohio. Before the race, I had parked my airplane in a field near the Santa Monica airport but I was hauled off to jail by the sheriff who thought I was a dope smuggler! Accomplishments. (Con.) I won the Women's Air Derby in 1929. I crossed the finish line first in the Dixie Derby of 1930 and took the prize of $2,000. Within a few months I set a new world's record for women jumpers by parachuting from a plane at 15,200 feet.

Accomplishments. (con.) In 1931, I was the overall winner in the 1931 Transcontinental Handicap Air Derby, besting some 55 other entrants including 36 male pilots, I received a telegram from Eleanor Roosevelt asking me to campaign for her husband. I was the first woman in the federal government to hold an official post in connection with aviation. My Jobs I was appointed to serve as liaison between the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics and the Bureau of Air Commerce. I was also active in the Civil Aeronautics Administration until into the 1950's. My Jobs (Con.) In 1933, I was appointed a special assistant for the governmental department that would many years later become NASA. I convinced the Airport Marking and Mapping Section of the Bureau of Air Commerce to get the states involved, and I directed the all-woman staff as the Bureau of Air Commerce's National Air Marking Program.

My Jobs. (Con.) In 1935, I chose five leading women pilots as field representatives for the program: Louise T haden (first woman to beat men in a cross-country race), Helen Richie, Blanche Noyes, Nancy Harkness (who would head the U.S. Air Transport Command in WWII), and Helen McCloskey. My Jobs. (Con.) I worked with the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA). One of my achievements in the NACA was the air marking program I initiated in 1935. This program called for 12-foot black and orange letters to be painted on the roofs of barns, factories, warehouses and water tanks.

My Jobs. (Cont.) Visible from 4,000 feet, they identified the locale, gave the north bearing, and indicated by circle, arrow and number the distance and direction of the nearest airport. The air markers were to be placed across the country at 15-square-mile intervals. As part of the Works Progress Administration, air marking provided thousands of jobs for unemployed men.

I hired female pilots to establish and administer the program in each state. Death On August 5, 1936, my husband and seven others aboard a commercial airliner died when it crashed while trying to land in fog in St. Louis. The plane cart wheeled and blew apart. He was buried in Forest Hill Cemetery. Jobs I joined the "Ninety Nines". with Amelia Earhart and returned to Washington in 1941 as Senior Private Flying Specialist of the Civil Aero-nautica Authority, to coordinate aviation activities for the WPA, the National Defense Commission, and the Department of Education.

During the first months of that year, I traveled 12,000 miles and established 66 schools in 46 states. Conclusion After my husband's death, I campaigned for taxation reform that would return aviation taxes for aviation use and for the establishment of state-sponsored schools to train civilian pilots. I also developed pilot training programs and I was an advocate for aircraft safety. I am unhappy with President Truman's appointment of people without aviation experience to the Civil Aeronautics Administration. And so I left Washington and don't plan on returning.