Airborne Homage : Pilot to Re-Create Open-Cockpit Flight of 1929 Women’s Air Derby Champion

In 1929, an air derby featuring 20 women pilots hopscotching across the country in their open-cockpit planes was a big enough deal to draw thousands of cheering people to airstrips from Santa Monica to Cleveland.

The issue was whether women could be aviators. The answer was yes, as amply demonstrated by such pioneering pilots as Amelia Earhart and First Women’s Air Derby victor Louise Thaden.

On Friday, a 1980s pilot, who happens to be a woman, will pay homage to Thaden and her cadre of trailblazers when she takes off from Santa Monica Airport to re-create the race on its 60th anniversary.

Susan Dusenbury, 40, a commercial pilot for Airborne Express, will be behind the controls of the restored Travel Air D4000 in which Thaden won her historic victory.

She will be dressed in authentic 1920s aviator equipment, complete with goggles and hat that are essential in an open-air cockpit. There is no radar, radio or other communication device in the plane, Dusenbury said in a telephone interview from her home in North Carolina.

Frequent Stops

Dusenbury will find her way with a magnetic compass and by “winging it,” that is, navigating by visual landmarks. The plane holds enough fuel for 3 1/2 hours, so frequent stops are built into the trip. In Texas alone, she will touch ground at five different airports.

A licensed airplane mechanic who has restored antique planes, Dusenbury said she flies her own plane to lunch every Saturday, meeting 20 to 70 fellow flying enthusiasts in Madison, N.C..

She has already delivered the Travel Air to California, where it is undergoing last-minute fine-tuning for takeoff tomorrow. Dusenbury said she is excited about honoring Thaden, a “great person and aviatrix” whose motto was “Take care of your engine and your engine will take care of you.”

“This derby symbolizes the dramatic achievement that women have made in aviation,” Dusenbury said. “Louise Thaden was more than just a winner of this race. She represents the spirit of all women aviators, of their abilities and their courage.”

In the first derby, one of the pilots died en route and another landed in a field, put out a cockpit fire and took off again. According to Dusenbury, they ranged from socialites to country-bred, but shared the trait of independence. “I think you sort of had to have a mind of your own,” she said.

Dusenbury said media interest in the 1929 race was fueled by its timing--it had not been that long since women gained the right to vote. The race, later dubbed the “Powder Puff Derby,” overshadowed a men’s race that was taking place at the same time.

Thaden was involved in another first seven years later when she became the first woman to enter a race with men. Race sponsors offered one cash prize for the first-place winner and another for the woman who came in first. Thaden won the race and all of the money in an old worn-out plane.

“She knew how to get speed,” Dusenbury said.