The Daily Alaska Empire

Queen of Fliers Ready
For Solo Hop to Paris

NEW YORK.-First of her sex to plan a solo trans-Atlantic flight Miss Ruth Nichols, intrepid aviatrix, social registerite and the aviation world's queen, is preparing for the greatest effort of her flying career.

During this month the holder of the women's speed crown will lift her heavily loaded Lockheed Vega plane, The New Cincinnati, off the runway at Harbor Grace, Newfoundland and turn its nose toward Paris-following the Lindbergh trail. Because of her plane's tremendous speed, Miss Nichols is expected to complete the flight during daylight hours-if she completes it.

All other women who have tried trans-Atlantic flights have depended on the skill of man. Amelia Earhart, the only woman to have flown all the way across, was piloted by the late Wilmer Stultz. Ruth Elder, co-piloted by George Haldeman, dropped in the ocean off the Azores to be picked up by a passing tramp steamer. Frances Grayson, Elsie McKay, Princess Lowenstein-Wertheim and Beryl Hart all perished with the men on whose skill they staked their lives. Ruth Nichols is going alone-but the prayers of the world will go with her.

Farns Distinction Becoming interested in aviation shortly after her graduation from Wellesley College in 1924, the young society girl, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Erikson N. Nichols of Rye, N. Y., earned the distinction of being the first woman to be given a transport pilot's license which was granted her in 1927. The following year she gained national fame by piloting a pontoon-equipped plane in a non-stop flight from New York to Miami. In 1929 Miss Nichols toured the United States in the interests of aviation, completing a 12,000 mile flight without a mishap. A year later she startled the country by beating Lindbergh's time in a flight from Los Angeles to New York. Out for a new women's record, Miss Nichols hopped off from the Pacific Coast city, landing in Wichita, Kan., seven hours later. She rested overnight taking off early next day for the balance of the trip, which was completed in six hours and twenty-two minutes, more than an hour better than Lindbergh's time and second only to the record of Capt. Frank Hawks.

Sets Record Early this year Miss Nichols set a new altitude record for women, when she climbed to 28,743 feet over New York. Seeking new laurels, she established a new speed record for her sex, when, at Detroit recently, she flew her Lockheed Vega over an official three kilometer course, averaging 210.685 miles per hour, bettering the old record, held by Amelia Earhart, by over 19 miles.

Coached for her trans-ocean hop by Clarence Chamberlin, Ruth Nichols is probably better qualified to make the attempt than any other flier in the world. That is the opinion of the aviation world-and may that opinion prove correct.