Amongst aviation pioneers, the Stinsons are surely one of the most remarkable families ever. All four children, two girls and two boys, made a mark in flying. And of them Katherine Stinson was the most famous. In the seven years after she became only the fourth woman in the United States to fly solo, she was also the first to solo at night, the first pilot of either gender to skywrite with flares, the first woman to perform a loop and the first woman to be authorised for US airmail delivery. She also broke some long distance records, taught flying and helped publicise aviation across the globe.

Katherine was born in Fort Payne, Alabama, on February 14, 1891. While she was still a child, the Wright brothers made their momentous first powered flight. Katherine flew in a balloon in 1911 and this sparked an abiding interest in aviation. However, her aim was to get the best music training and become a piano teacher. It required a trip to Europe, something her parents couldn’t afford. Then Katherine heard that stunt pilots could earn the princely sum of $1,000 a day and decided to adopt this route to finance her voyage to Europe. The problem was that she didn’t know how to fly.

After approaching many flight instructors and being turned down, mainly because she was female, she caught up with aviation pioneer Max Lillie of Chicago. Lillie took one look at the diminutive and pretty Katherine and refused. But she persisted and he grudgingly agreed to take her up for a joy ride. Soon after getting airborne he realised that the calm and self-possessed young woman was a natural flyer. She needed just four hours of instruction to fly solo in Lillie’s Wright Model B, an early pusher biplane produced by the Wright brothers. She gained her pilot’s licence on July 24, 1912. And that the family piano had to be sold to pay for flying lessons seemed a sign that she should forget her music career and concentrate full-time on aviation.

Max Lillie now began to teach Katherine Stinson enthusiastically. Although women were not considered “scientific” enough even to drive a car, Katherine soon learned stunt flying and began touring the country as a barnstormer, amazing the crowds with her skill on the Wright B. Most people thought she was just about 16 years old, so they named her “The Flying Schoolgirl”. On July 18, 1915, she became the first woman in the world to fly a loop, a feat she repeated over 500 times without mishap. In another spectacular achievement, this time at night, she attached magnesium flares to the wingtips of her aircraft and traced a few letters in the sky. She also looped, flew inverted, and zipped just above the ground with the lighted flares clearly visible to the enthralled crowd.

Katherine’s excellent safety record was mainly a result of her stress on aircraft maintenance. She was a skilled mechanic and made it a habit to meticulously check each part of her plane before every flight. Sadly enough, her instructor was killed in an air crash due to a technical problem. She always felt the accident could have been averted by thorough pre-flight checks.

Following Katherine’s successes in aviation, her family was also drawn to flying. First her younger sister Marjorie became the ninth American woman to obtain a pilot’s licence and the youngest at age 18. Then younger brothers Eddie and Jack also learned flying from them. When World War I broke out in 1914, Katherine twice volunteered to join military aviation but was summarily rejected. In 1915, the family founded the Stinson School of Flying in San Antonio, Texas. The school thrived for a few years. Its most important pupils were Canadian cadets who learned flying in preparation for wartime missions. The two sisters were the instructors, the brothers saw to the maintenance of the planes and their mother Emma, was the business manager. The same year Marjorie Stinson became the only woman to be accepted in the US Aviation Reserve Corps. She was dubbed “The Flying Schoolmarm” by her pupils. However, when America entered the War, all civilian aviation was stopped and the flying school had to be closed.

On December 11, 1917, Katherine flew non-stop from San Diego to San Francisco, a distance of 970 kilometres, setting a new American distance record. She also became the first woman to fly in Japan and China. The next year she again broke the distance record, flying 1,253 kilometres from Chicago to New York to deliver mail as America’s first authorised female airmail pilot. As the War dragged on, Katherine became a Red Cross ambulance driver in Europe, where she contracted influenza. It became tuberculosis and she had to give up her beloved aviation.

Katherine Stinson died on July 8, 1977. To those who believe that women are easily frightened she said: “Fear, as I understand, is simply due to lack of confidence or lack of knowledge, which is the same thing. You are afraid of what you don’t understand, of things you cannot account for.”