Lady Mary Heath visited the Davis-Monthan Airfield on May 30th 1929. She was flying an Avian, registry 603E. She did not indicate an origin or a destination (see notation in right column), but she was westbound (page link). The Newark Star-Eagle of April 27, 1929 (“Lady Heath Starts Country Air Tour”) reports her dawn departure from the Pine Brook Airport for a tour of the U.S. piloting, “a new Whittlesworth Avian powered with a Cirrus four-in-line air cooled engine.” Her first stop was planned for Dayton, OH, with “several short hops” to the west coast. Image, left, from New York Sun, August 29, 1929.

Her airplane was being delivered to R.W. Simpson, Clover Field, Los Angeles, a west coast dealer. It carried the latest features, including the Handley-Paige slotted wing to prevent spins. She was flying under contract to sell American Cirrus engines, and to find out how the engine would behave through use of any grade of fuel or oil. Her contract would be over when she returned east.

Along the way on her trip, on May 2, 1929, The Star-Eagle reported (“Lady Heath In Crash”) a minor accident upon making a forced landing at Effingham, IL. The plane was damaged and repairs were made at Terre Haute, IN. She then continued her flight westward.

Fresno Bee, August 29, 1929

Her cross-country voyage was reported in this article from the British journal Flight of July 4, 1929 (p. 551), just about a month after she visited Tucson. There is a photograph in this article of Lady Heath standing next to large saguaro cactuses near Tucson. The article also mentions her meeting with Marvel Crosson, female flyer (not a Register pilot) killed in the 1929 Powder Puff Derby. Her brother, Joe Crosson, is a Register pilot.

Lady Heath enjoyed a meteoric career in aviation. Setting records, transport flying and accidents, as well as politics and three marriages, punctuated her life between 1928 and 1932. She first made headlines by flying solo from Capetown to London between February 12 and May 28, 1928. See the article, right, near the bottom ("Flew Across Africa").

On February 28, 1928 The New York Times reported an enroute incident during that record-setting flight (“Lady Heath Faints While Piloting Plane”). She made a forced landing while flying from Pretoria to Bulawayo on her way to Cairo. She realized she was suffering “sunstroke” and, “…altered her course toward the grasslands, shut off the engine and remembered no more until she awoke in a native hut with the occupants giving her a drink.” Her plane had flown to an uneventful landing in the grass while she was unconscious!

On July 11, 1928 the New York Tribune (“Lady Heath Sets Light Seaplane Altitude Mark”) reported her climb to 13,000 feet over the Rochester Airdrome, London in an all-metal Mussel light seaplane with a Cirrus engine. She was carrying fellow pilot Kathleen O’Brien. They ascended at 12:25 PM and descended at 2:14 PM. The flight was held under the auspices of the International Aeronautical Federation.

On July 27, 1928 she applied her piloting skills in a commercial job with Royal Dutch Airlines (New York Evening News: “Lady Heath Takes Job As Dutch Air Pilot”). Thirteen-months later she crashed her airplane through a roof near Cleveland, OH (Fresno Bee link, left sidebar).

At right, the article from the Fresno Bee of August 29, 1929 that describes that crash. She survived the accident caused, in part, by the fact that she had shut her engine off while practicing for a dead-stick landing contest at the 1929 National Air Races in Cleveland. Most conservative, modern pilots would not turn off a perfectly good-running engine. And they probably would not expose passengers to risk while doing this kind of practice.

Please direct your browser to some of the links in the left sidebar to review additional information about Lady Mary Heath. She was a hoot in any era.

Ironically, Lady Heath suffered a fall down the stairs of a double-decker bus in London. She passed away from her injuries in 1939. Her fortunes dwindling, contemporary newspapers reported that nobody knew her when she was taken to the hospital.

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Dossier 2.4.21

UPLOADED: 05/05 REVISED: 09/21/06, 04/14/08, 11/19/08, 12/15/08