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Betty Skelton See also Aerobatic
Champions (former exhibit in gallery 104) Betty Skelton was the U.S. Feminine Aerobatic Champion in 1948, 1949, and 1950. As a young girl in Pensacola, Florida, Skelton first soloed in a Taylorcraft at the tender age of 12 and then again officially at age 16. Betty wanted a career in aviation and started with a clerical position at Eastern Airlines. At 17, she had the necessary flight hours but was too young to join the Women Air Service Pilots (WASP) and it was disbanded shortly before she reached the required age of 18 and ½. She received her commercial rating at 18, her flight instructor rating at 19, joined the Civil Air Patrol (CAP), and began instructing at the Pete O' Knight Airport in Tampa. She first started aerobatic flying in a Fairchild PT-19 when a Tampa airport manager suggested she learn a loop and a roll for the local amateur airshow. She bought her own aircraft, a 1929 Great Lakes 2T1A biplane and began her profession career in 1946 at the Southeastern Air Exposition in Jacksonville, Florida, along with a new US Navy exhibition team, the Blue Angels. |
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Skelton toured the airshow circuit in the southeastern United States
and became part of the legendary group of performers of the postwar era
at the Cleveland and Miami air races, including Steve Wittman, Woody Edmondson,
and Bevo Howard. She was a natural at public relations. She won her first
International Feminine title on January 4, 1948 at the All American Air
Maneuvers in Miami, Florida, flying her Great Lakes, and it was there
that she noticed a striking new biplane, the Pitts Special. The bright
red Pitts S-1C, designed by Curtis Pitts, was small, but quick and highly
maneuverable. Skelton's superb flying skills and natural public relations
abilities showcased the design and it became a very successful competition
aerobatic aircraft. Skelton approached the Pitts owner, Jeff Bristow, who at first refused to let her fly it, let alone buy it, but she persisted and bought it in August 1948. In January 1949, she won her second International Feminine Aerobatic title, beating Caro Bayley. She performed at International Air Pageants at Gatwick and Sydenham Airports in England and Ireland respectively. She repainted the aircraft in a red and white paint scheme and received a smaller registration number for the aircraft, N22E. For fun, she tacked a small engine feather button from a B-17 to the instrument panel that red "Spin Crash Burn " and also attached a wolf whistle that came in handy in attracting linemen at airports. She named the aircraft The Little Stinker Too, eventually shortened to Little Stinker, and had a skunk painted onto the fuselage. On July 11, 1949 Skelton attempted to break Jacqueline Cochran's world speed record flying Woody Edmondson's North American P-51 Mustang racing plane. High above Tampa Bay, the engine exploded as she reached an unofficial speed of 421.6 miles per hour, but she refused to bail out, later citing her inability to swim. Instead, she performed a deadstick landing at MacDill AFB. Frustrated by being denied participation in air races because of her gender, Skelton concentrated on her aerobatic career and became the first women to perform an inverted ribbon cut. Steve Wittman and Bill Brennan held the poles for her at Wittman's Oshkosh Field, in Wisconsin, and watched as she flew just under the ribbon. Then the engine quit and she barely righted the aircraft before it touched down; neither she nor the aircraft suffered any damage. In January 1950, she won her third feminine title at the All American Air Manuevers. Walter and Olive Ann Beech asked her to fly demonstration flights in the Beech T-34 Mentor trainer for an Air Force flight evaluation team and Beech Aircraft won the contract. Skelton wrote articles for several aviation magazines and was featured in popular magazines and in print advertising, including Camel cigarettes. She authored her own column in Flying and had her own radio program in Tampa. In 1951 she piloted a Piper Super Cub to 29,050 feet, setting a new world altitude recorded for women. Later that year, with little opportunities for her in aviation, Skelton sold Little Stinker and ran an airport with her family. She found challenges elsewhere becoming the first women jump boat driver in the world. Next she drove the pace car at the Daytona NASCAR race and set a stock car record on the beach. She earned a total of four Feminine World Land Speed Records at Daytona and the Bonneville Salt Flats. Skelton then became one of the few top women advertising executives, working for Campbell-Ewald with the General Motors Company in print, television, and automobile demonstration runs. In 1959, Look magazine asked to her work with them on an article about the suitability of women for the emerging space program. She underwent and passed the exact physical and psychological tests as the original Mercury seven astronauts, proving that women had the requisite physical and mental capabilities. She landed on the cover of Look but never had any illusions that a woman would be selected for the Mercury program. In 1967 Skelton and her husband Donald Frankman reacquired the Pitts and later displayed it at the Florida Sports Hall of Fame at Cypress Gardens, Florida. Then, in 1985, they donated Pitts S-1C Little Stinker to the National Air and Space Museum. A volunteer team restored it between 1996 and 2001. It is currently in the exhibit Aerobatic Champions with Leo Loudenslager's Laser 200, and will later move to the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center at Dulles Airport, Virginia. In 1988, the International Aerobatic Club (IAC) established the Betty Skelton First Lady of Aerobatics Award that is given to the highest scoring female in the US national aerobatic competition. Skelton was the first woman inducted into the IAC's Aerobatic Hall of Fame, the International NASCAR Hall of Fame, and the Corvette Hall of Fame. |
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