SOCIETY MEETS THE AIR

Mildred Morgan was a well-respected pilot and air racer (image from The Blue Book of Aviation, p. 171). She is one of 42 female pilots to sign the Davis-Monthan Airfield register a total of 58 times.

The airplane she flew to the Davis-Monthan Airfield is NC8192, a Travel Air model 4000, S/N 894, built in 1929. It left the factory dark blue with silver wings. Her husband, Thomas E. Morgan, president of Pickwick Airways, an early west coast air transport operation, owned the airplane. Please click to see an image of NC8192 at Tucson in 1931.

Ms. Morgan is listed in The Blue Book of Aviation, a handsome volume embellished with Art Deco accents, published in 1932. The Blue Book says about her, "Mrs. Mildred Morgan, prominent sports flyer and clubwoman of Southern Calif. has, for the past several years, been actively identified with the promotion of aviation....and has participated in numerous air events. In February, 1930 she flew a Ryan monoplane, cabin type, from Los Angeles to Mexico City and return. Following this she did considerable flying for sport and then entered the 1930 Women's Air Derby, Long Beach, Calif., to Chicago, Ill., in which event she won second place."

Her Ryan trip to Mexico is of interest, because Pancho Barnes also flew to Mexico the week of February 25, 1930 and was credited as being the first female American pilot to do so.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS IN AIR RACING

Mildred learned to fly in Hawaii in 1929, and participated in the 1929-1932 National Air Races making her marks in two. In 1930, flying NC8192, she indeed placed second (Jean LaRene placed third). Her time was 21 hours, 8 minutes and 35 seconds. She won $2,100 and picked up another $300 by placing third in the 50-mile race for open cockpit airplanes (with an average speed of 107.24 MPH), and another $80 in dead stick landing contests. Expenses notwithstanding, that was a great week’s pay for those days, especially for a pilot with one year flying experience.

In 1931, the Derby ran from Santa Monica to Cleveland. Mildred placed eighth in that race (with Phoebe Omlie taking first). She also placed fourth in the Women’s 25 Mile Race (104.519 MPH). Neither of her places accrued prize money.

At the end of the 1931 Derby, she flew to New Orleans to compete in another cross-country race back to Los Angeles. This race brought Mildred and the two-year-old Travel Air to Tucson on Saturday September 19, 1931 at 10:10 AM. She was racing west from Douglas, AZ to Beverly Hills, enroute from New Orleans. She stayed on the ground for a half-hour and departed to continue competition.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS OFF THE RACE CIRCUIT

She partied frequently with Pancho Barnes in California, was an author of aviation-related articles, and hosted gatherings of The Ninety-Nines in California. In one of her 1932 articles she describes one gathering as, “…a reception for over 100 people, forty-three of whom were licensed women pilots, the largest group of them ever to have congregated in the world at one time or place.” This fact verifies the real significance of 42 women flying through and signing the Davis-Monthan Airfield transient register.

She was intensely interested in the roles of women aviators. The New York Times of April 26 and the Newark Star-Eagle of May 11, 1931 cite her activities in the Betsy Ross Corps, which evolved into the Women’s Air Reserve. She was Secretary of The Ninety-Nines Southwest Chapter in November 1931. She was involved with the Associated Motion Picture Pilots, chartered in 1932, to improve the salaries and working conditions of pilots who performed for the movies.

THE FATE OF HER AIRPLANE

After Mildred, the history of her Travel Air is utilitarian. It was a crop duster in Lodi, CA from approximately 1937 to 1997, used to spread sulphur on Tokay table grapes. Today, NC8192 lives in New Zealand, owned by a pilot/operator who gives pleasure rides to tourists.

The image is of Mildred Morgan’s NC8192 in New Zealand, fuselage hopper installed for agricultural dusting, and wings squared. Image courtesy of present owner.

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Dossier 2.4.9

UPLOADED: 05/04/05 REVISED: 02/17/07