The Dillon herald. [volume] (Dillon, S.C.) 1894-????, 1911-09-21
AIR GIRL SURELY MADE GOOD.
First Woman Aviator to Make a
Public Flight i'm This Country
Getaway in Breeze that Made


pieces about the theatres for one of
the illustrated weeklies, took her
trusty monoplane in hand yesterday
afternoon and made the first flight
ever made by a woman in this
country. 1t was at the Richmond
county Agricultural Society's annu-
al fair.
She started from the field and
swooped out over the meadowland
and the Narrows. Three times she
shot around this circuit and in the
five or six minutes she was in the
air there was just one minute
when Fred Moissant, Mathilda Moi
SAINT (brother and sister of John
Moisant,) Capt. Tom Baldwin, Lee
Hammond and the other thousands
of people who were watching her
were about ready to stop breathing.
That was when she came to grass
at the end of the ride.
Miss Quimby took it on a drive
from 200 or 800 feet, brought up
within a few feet of the ground
and then stubbed the toe of her
flyer. Bump, bump, she went along
the uneven surface of the infield
and the hop and quick descent were
the kind that airmen don't
like to see. Sometimes a monoplano
turns handspring when it acts
like that, but Miss Quimby quieted
its wings and it behaved.
Through the afternoon while the
wind was whipping out the flags
on the stands Miss Quimby sat in
the Moisant automobile with the
plum colored hood of her plum
colored flying suit shading her
eyes. She seemed as calm as a.
woman who sat in front of the
parachute jumpers tent few feet
away placidly knitting. Miss
Quimby looked up occasionally to
the whipping flags and her cheeks
were perhaps a little more flush
ed than those of the other women
In the car. Her fingers locked and
unlocked a queer bracelet.
Il want to make good,' she said
to those who came to wish her
good"
A few feet away her instructor,
A. J. Houpert, was saying some
thing about her flying
She is the best one l ever
taught" he said. Il don't say it
because she is a woman. Yesterday
she went up with a Gnome engine
Tor the first time. l was sure she
would break some wood before she
finished. They almost always do
the first time. But she didn't
Wait till you See her!"
Miss Quimby's eyes grew brighter
and the little drops on her ear
rings shook as she laughed when
someone told her about this.
Well, he never gave me that
much satisfaction said she.
Up. came Capt. Tom Baldwin.
nlYk- n n
ing to try it,
And try it young Lee Hammond
the Boston boy, who has been going
up only three months, certainly did. |
they rolled out one of the Baldwin
red devils for him and he made |
a clean getaway, fluttered just a .
little as he came out of the protec-
tion of the bluff to winward, and |
then SKINNED away over the wa
ter toward Coney Island. He was
PACK presently and went UP to the
MCsant car. He told Miss
Quimby that it was pretty "blob-
by" She had been watching him
through field glasses, and she said
she knew he was working all the !
time. He said he'd try it again.
This time he went off over the wa
ter, but on the home trip his mo-
tor developed crankiness and he
was glad enough to glide to the
meadows, 1000 feet or so outside
the field
Even before they got a report on
his accident, which wasn't serious in |
any way, Capt. Baldwin decided |
that it was time for Miss Quimby |
to go up. The wind had died per-
ceptibly. She motored to the low
er field, slipped out of her long
cloak and stood there in puttees and
the waistless haremette of the air
woman.
You feel like a monkey crawl
ing along the chassis" said she. |
But crawl she did and in a min
ute she smiled to Fred Moisant and
tossed back her plum colored hood
as the mechanician spun the pro-
peller. B-r-r-r-r-r-r! went the mo-
tor. Then faster, slower again and
then at top speed as she turned it
up. One nod of her head and
she was off
Over the head of horsemen, mo-
tcrcyclists. jockeys, balloonists and
ordinary people she sailed. The turn
when she struck the wind was as
smooth as a sloop rounding a bend
In the river. Over the water her
hood spread out behind her. Only
her head and shoulders were Wis
ible. Back she came we'll up over
the field and maybe she didn't get
yell from the throats down be-
low.
The second circuit was as clean
as the first. Traffic cops galloped
over the grass to clear a landing
for her, but she fooled everybody,
Tor as she came within striking dis
tance of the ground up went her
control and she arose again. This
time she took one hand from the
gear and waved it with apparently
as much concern as a young woman
shows when going through a coun-
try town on a fast train.