Ruth Nichols, American Aviatrix and WWII Volunteer

Ruth Nichols, American Aviatrix and WWII Volunteer

Ruth Rowland Nichols AKA the Flying Debutante (February 23, 1901 - September 25, 1960) was an American aviation pioneer. While a student at Wellesley College, Nichols secretly took flying lessons. Shortly after graduation, she received her pilot's license, and became the first woman in the world to obtain a hydroplane license. She achieved public fame in 1928, as co-pilot for Harry Rogers, who had been her flying instructor, on the first non-stop flight from New York to Miami, Florida. In 1929, she was a founding member of the Ninety-Nines, an organization of licensed women pilots. During the 1930s Nichols made several record-setting flights and was the only woman yet to hold simultaneous world records for speed, altitude, and distance for a female pilot. In 1939, she headed Relief Wings, a civilian air service that performed emergency relief flights and assisted the Civil Air Patrol during WWII. Following the war, Nichols became involved in other humanitarian efforts, using her celebrity to bring attention to causes and to raise funds. In 1959, as the Mercury program was preparing for missions to the moon, Nichols underwent the same isolation, centrifuge, and weightlessness tests that had been devised for the astronaut candidates. Suffering from severe depression she died of an overdose of barbiturates in 1960 at the age of 59. National Photo Company, March, 19, 1929.

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3341 x 4200 px | 40.1 MB

28.3 x 35.6 cm | 11.1 x 14.0 in (300 dpi)