Neta Snook

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Anita "Neta" Snook Southern (February 14, 1896 - March 23, 1991), was a pioneer aviator who achieved a long list of firsts. She was the first woman aviator in Iowa, first woman student accepted at the Curtiss Flying School in Virginia, first woman "aviatrix" to run her own aviation business and first woman to run a commercial airfield. Yet "Snookie", as her friends called her, was fated to be remembered for her relationship to Amelia Earhart. Her autobiography I Taught Amelia to Fly aptly captures the essence of her fame, she was forever linked to the Earhart mystique as her first instructor.

Contents

Early life

Neta Snook was born on February 14, 1896 in Mount Carroll, Illinois. She was interested in machinery, at an early age spurred by her father's automobiles. At the age of four, she would sit on her father's lap and help him steer his Stanley Steamer up and down the hills of their small Illinois town. As she grew older, he taught her the inner workings of cars. After the family moved to Ames, Iowa in 1915, Snook attended Iowa State College (now Iowa State University), taking extra courses in mechanical drawing, combustion engines and farm machinery repair. With the excitement engendered by the first machines in the air, she read all she could about aeroplanes (as they were called then) and wanted to learn to fly.

Flying

During her sophomore year at college, Snook applied to the Atlantic Coast Aeronautical Station, the Curtiss-Wright Aviation School, in Newport News, Virginia, and was denied admittance with the application stamped: "No females allowed." The following year, reading an advertisement for the Davenport Flying School in Iowa, brought her back home where she became one of the first female student pilots. After a major crash in which the school's president was killed, the school closed and "Curly," as she had been dubbed by fellow students, went looking for another flight training school. In 1917, Snook eventually gained entry into the Curtiss-Wright Aviation School and put in many hours in the air until civilian flights in the United States were banned for the duration of World War I. Briefly, in 1918, she worked for the Royal Flying Corps in Elmira, New York as an expeditor putting her mechanical skills to good use, inspecting and testing aircraft parts and engines on their way to combat in Europe.

After purchasing a wrecked Canuck, a Canadian version of a Curtiss JN-4 Jenny, Snook had it shipped back to Ames, Iowa, and spent two years rebuilding the plane in her parents' backyard. In 1920, Snook soloed in her rebuilt Canuck, flying from a nearby pasture and received her pilot's license and, shortly after, entry into the Aero Club of America and the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI). Barnstorming throughout the Midwest in her Canuck, she made a living furtively hauling sightseers and "passengers" although her licence did not allow it. With the onset of a bitter Iowa winter, Snook decided to head out to California where she could fly year-round. She disassembled the Canuck for shipping and ended up in balmy Los Angeles.

In 1920, Snook approached Winfield Bertrum 'Bert' Kinner for a job as an instructor in his newly constructed airport, Kinner Field in Los Angeles, which offered aerial advertising (towing banners and flying billboards) and flight instruction. Bringing with her a background in mechanics made her an invaluable assist to Kinner. After a brief trial period, she became the first woman to run a commercial airfield.

Amelia Earhart

In 1921, Amelia Earhart, along with her father, walked onto the airfield and asked Neta, "I want to fly. Will you teach me?" The agreement struck between Amelia and her parents was that only a woman pilot would teach her to fly. "For $1 in Liberty bonds per minute in the air, Neta Snook taught Amelia Earhart to fly, but above that, they became friends." The first five hours in the air were paid for by Earhart but the next 15 were entirely unpaid as Snook took her new pilot up in the Kinner Airster that Amelia had purchased.

At first her pupil was not the best flyer. Earhart stalled the Airster while trying to clear a grove of eucalyptus trees on takeoff. Snook thought to herself, "Perhaps I had misjudged her abilities." However their friendship held sway and this first crash was soon forgotten. They flew together for over a year. Snook became close with the entire Earhart family and often spent time at the family home.

Later years

Neta Snook became the first woman to enter a "men's" air race at the Los Angeles Speedway in February 1921, finishing fifth and telling the media, "I'm going to fly as cleverly, as audaciously, as thrillingly as any man aviator in the world."

At the age of 25, she married Bill Southern in 1922, became pregnant and gave up flying, selling her business. Not much was heard about Neta Snook Southern in the years following her retirement but after Earhart disappeared during her famous flight in 1937, Snook began lecturing and speaking about her career in aviation and, later, wrote her autobiography, I Taught Amelia To Fly. Neta flew for the first time in decades, when she was invited to pilot a replica of Charles Lindbergh's Spirit of St. Louis in 1977. In 1981, she was acknowledged as the oldest woman pilot in the United States. Neta died at age 95 on 23 March 23, 1991 at her ranch home in California. One year after her death, Neta Snook Southern was inducted into the Iowa Aviation Hall of Fame.

Legacy

In 1917, "few women took to the clouds during that time, but the ones who did became famous for their courage and contributions to mankind's experience of flight."

References

  • Marshall, Patti. "Neta Snook" Aviation History Vol. 17, no. 3. January 2007.
  • Marshall, Patti. "Woman who touched the skies also touched Shawnee." The Shawnee News-Star. 12 June 2002.
  • Southern, Neta Snook. I Taught Amelia to Fly. New York: Vantage Press, 1974. ISBN 0-53301-161-2.


Excerpts

Excerpt from Ladybirds II - The Continuing Story of American Women in Aviation, by Henry M. Holden and Captain Lori Griffith (1994).

Neta Snook defied the prevailing social custom and opened an aviation business on her own.

Neta, who had taught Amelia Earhart to fly, had begun flying lessons on July 21, 1917 but had not soloed when civilian flying was banned because of World War I. She remained active in aviation by taking a job with the British Air Ministry, inspecting aircraft engines under production at the Willys Morrow factory in Elmira, New York.

Neta continued her flight instruction after the war. In order to afford flight lessons, Neta worked part-time in a photo shop. The owner would pick up rolls of film from the drugstores in town and Neta would develop and print photos. Neta barnstormed around the country before she soloed for her license.

When she had a total time of 100 minutes of instruction in a plane she helped to build, Neta's instructor and the president of the school decided to take the plane up. The plane crashed, killing the president, seriously injuring her instructor, and destroying the plane.

Between 1920-1922, Neta became the first woman to operate a commercial aviation field. Located at Kinner Field, in Los Angeles, California, it included passenger carrying, aerial advertising and instruction.

Sunday was passenger-carrying day at Neta's airport and one Sunday in December, Amelia Earhart and her father came to the flying field to talk to Neta about giving Amelia flight instruction.

On January 3, 1921, Neta gave Amelia Earhart her first lesson in Neta's World War I Canuck (a Canadian-built training plane). Earhart's first lesson, according to Neta, was for twenty minutes. The first five hours of Amelia's instruction were in the Canuck, and the next 15 hours were in a Kinner Airster. According to Neta's good friend Carol Osborne, Neta recalled she had charged Amelia $1.00 per minute for lessons. However, the figures in her logbook show she charged Amelia's first 110 minutes at $.75 per minute. Although Neta charged Amelia for instruction in the Canuck, she did not charge her for subsequent lessons in the Airster.

Snook's March 30, 1921 records show $85 due her. Apparently, they were becoming good friends. Amelia had a box camera and because of Neta's photographic experience, Earhart got an idea to get a part-time job in a photo studio also. Amelia's wages were $21.50 a week at the time.

On January 8, 1921, Neta took the Kinner Airster on its first test flight. The flight lasted three minutes (that would have taken her up to circle the field and probably four figure eights). The main problem Snook had been wondering how it would handle on landing. The landing went well and the plane's designer, Bert Kinner was thrilled. After he saw the plane would fly he then went up with Neta twice. (Kinner later sold this plane to Earhart.)

On April 1, 1921, Neta went to her first fly-in. Two actors, Mary Miles Minter and Ruth Rowland were there. Ruth Rowland wore a black leather jacket, black boots and a black helmet. Neta so admired Ruth's attire that the next day, she used black shoe polish to paint her coat. She also dyed her puttees (calf-length-leather-protectors) black. A month later she painted her Canuck black. The Canuck was still painted black when she sold it in 1922.

On July 3, 1921, Neta took Amelia up for her first 25 minutes of instruction in the Airster and two weeks later they had their first crash on Goodyear field.

Kinner had to repair the Airster before Earhart could fly the craft again, and Neta retired from aviation before repairs had been completed.

Neta wanted a child above everything. When she was expecting, she made a vow that if she could have a healthy baby, she would give up flying forever. She had a handsome and healthy son named William Curtiss Southern.

In August 1922, Neta stepped out of her Canuck and never flew again until 1977 (on a commercial flight). She sold the Canuck for a house and lot in Manhattan Beach, and a $500 Liberty bond.

Neta Snook was one of the few people present to see the successful test flight of the Douglas Cloudster, the first of the Douglas Commercial series and the first plane able to carry its own weight in payload. Neta went to work for the Douglas Aircraft Company, covering the wings of the first biplane built by Douglas. She sewed the linen covering and helped set up the wing department.


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