Adventure – WednesdaysWomen

The Women Who Walked on Wings

Three of the High-Flying Daredevils of Early Aviation

Lillian Boyer performs at an aerial stunt show in the 1920s.

As early as 1911, aerial wing walking emerged when pilots had no choice but to venture out onto the wings of their planes to make repairs or technical in-flight adjustments.

Sophie Blanchard – The Woman Who Defied the Sky

One of History’s Most Extraordinary Aerial Pioneers

From Napoleon’s favorite balloonist to the first woman killed in an aviation accident, Sophie Blanchard transformed ballooning into a profession and became one of history’s most extraordinary aerial pioneers.

Madame Sophie Blanchard (1778-1819) was a trailblazing French balloonist. While she wasn’t the first woman to take to the skies in a balloon, she was the first to pilot her own customized craft solo, the first to make ballooning a full-time career, and the first killed in an aviation accident.

Mary Cleave: A Dire Message from Outer Space

The View from Orbit that Scared an Astronaut

Mary Cleave in NASA garb — For environmental engineer and NASA astronaut Mary Cleave, the Space Shuttle was the ultimate platform from which to study the massively destructive effects of climate change that threaten Earth and its inhabitants.

Dr. Mary Cleave was a pilot, an environmental engineer, and one of the NASA’s first female astronauts. Her name may not be well known, but she did remarkable work for NASA – both in space and here on planet Earth.

Dot Robinson – Biker Babe From Cradle to Grave

A Trailblazer in Promoting Motorcycling for Women

Dot Robinson, co-founder of the Motor Maids of America — In the mid-20th century, Dot Robinson pioneered the concept and formed a club of a female bikers who owned, maintained, and rode their machines as well as any man and, in some cases, even better. She and husband Earl (above left) became leaders of the pack at their Detroit Harley-Davidson store.

Dot Robinson, born in Australia in 1912, was quite literally a biker babe. When her mother went into labor, her father loaded his heavily pregnant wife into a Harley-Davidson motorcycle sidecar rig and rushed her to the hospital. And when her mother came home, it was in that same sidecar, holding her tightly swaddled newborn daughter.

María Ylagan Orosa – Filipina War Hero and Banana Ketchup Queen

Killed by U.S. Friendly Fire, She Left a Legacy Including Much of What Filipinos Eat Today

Maria Orosa and a bottle of her banana ketchup — With chemistry and pharmaceutical degrees from a U.S. university, María Ylagan Orosa was also a captain in a guerilla unit battling the Japanese invasion of her homeland during World War II. Her weapon was unique, nutrient-dense foods that kept local Filipino freedom fighters going. The most famous of her creations was banana ketchup that took on a commercial life of its own after the war.

This is a serious story about a unique woman — Filipina food technologist, pharmaceutical chemist, humanitarian, and war hero – that starts with ketchup.

Blanche Scott: America’s First Female Aviator… or Was She?

An early female pilot and promoter who claimed several aviation “firsts” that weren’t

Blanche Scott in an early Curtiss aircraft — Daughter of a 19th-century patent medicine huckster, Blanche Scott proved herself as good a pilot as she was a shameless promoter claiming a number of early aviation “firsts” that weren’t.

Blanche Stuart Scott couldn’t stand the thought of “being a nobody and a nothing in New York’s millions.” So this only child, spoiled by wealthy parents and described as stubborn, adventurous, competitive and fiercely determined, became somebody, racking up a slew of firsts along the way. Unfortunately, some of those firsts weren’t. Some were more like close, but no cigar.