Blanche Noyes

Blanche Noyes was a competitive air racer and aviation businesswoman of the Golden Age. She signed the Clover Field Register twice. She also landed and signed the Register four times at Parks Airport and once at Pitcairn Field. As such, she is one of the few pilots of any gender who appeared coast-to-coast in our Registers.

The informal photograph above of Noyes is from the Cleveland Press Collection. The photo description states, “The … photo shows Blanche W. Noyes, Cleveland aviatrix, who is ready with her Travelair [sic] biplane for the first women’s transcontinental air derby from Santa Monica, Calif., to Cleveland, Ohio, part of the 1929 National Air Races [NAR].”
Noyes’ first visit to Santa Monica was on Tuesday, August 13, 1929. She flew a Travel Air she identified in the Register as NR657H, a model E-4000 named “Miss Cleveland.” She cited no home base or destination, but we know that on that date she was arriving at Santa Monica in preparation for her participation in the women’s cross-country event held in conjunction with the NAR. The cross-country race represented the first-time women competed in the NAR. Noyes ultimately placed fourth in the 1929 women’s transcontinental derby. This was just a few months after receiving her pilot’s license.

The photograph, right, again courtesy of the Cleveland Press Collection, was taken Sunday, August 11, 1929, at Wichita, Kan., as she began her trip to Santa Monica to participate in the NAR. The “Miss Cleveland” was flown under the sponsorship of the Halle Brothers Company. You can read “Miss Cleveland” on the fuselage just to the left of her head.

Her second landing at Clover Field occurred about two years later, on Tuesday, August 18, 1931. She was solo in a Great Lakes she identified as NC302Y, which was also named “Miss Cleveland.” She cited her destination as Cleveland, Ohio. Indeed, she was again competing in the women’s cross-country derby, this time in association with the 1931 NAR. Her airplane did not fare well in the journey and she did not place in the event.

Noyes was married to an aviator, Dewey Noyes, whose name also appears in the registries. They had gotten to know each other while she was taking flight instruction from him. He was killed in an aircraft accident in December 1935. With her husband’s passing she appeared to have assuaged her grief by continuing to fly and compete. In 1936, she teamed up as copilot with Louise Thaden to win the New York to Los Angeles Bendix Trophy Race in a Beech C-17R Staggerwing. They won $7,000 for their 14:54:49 winning time, plus a prize of $2,500 for a new women’s record. This was the first-time women could participate in the Bendix Race. Both Noyes and Thaden were pioneers in this regard, having competed both in the first National Air Races in 1929 and the first Bendix Trophy Race open to female competitors in 1936.

Parenthetically, Noyes related an anecdote about the finish of the Bendix Race at Los Angeles. She quoted an official on the ground there as saying, “Blanche, I’m afraid you’ve won the Bendix Race! I hope you haven’t, but if it has to be a woman, I’m glad it is you!” She must have been biting her tongue.

Noyes also landed at least four times at Parks Airport. Her third landing was . . .