San Antonio, 1915: how a 22-year-old woman started teaching the Allied pilots of WWI
In 1912, Katherine Stinson became the fourth American woman to earn a pilot's license. She was 21. By 1915 she had convinced her mother Emma to mortgage the family home so the Stinsons — Katherine, sister Marjorie (the youngest American woman to earn a pilot's license at age 18), brother Eddie, and Emma — could open the Stinson School of Flying at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio. The school took on contracts to train Royal Flying Corps Canadian cadets who couldn't complete training in Canadian winters. By 1917 the Stinsons had trained dozens of Allied pilots. Katherine became the first woman authorized to fly US airmail (1918), the first American woman to fly in Asia, and one of the first pilots of any gender to perform a loop. Brother Eddie went on to found the Stinson Aircraft Company, which built the Detroiter, Reliant, and L-5 Sentinel. The original 1915 field — KSSF Stinson Municipal — is one of the oldest continuously operating airports in America. The hangar still stands.