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HER STORY (page 3)
Elinor Smith beat Bobbi's endurance record by one hour. Bobbi then prepared
to make a second try at the solo endurance record. At the end of that
flight, 17 hours later at 5:10p.m. on February 10, the press, newsreel
cameras, movie stars and even Will Rogers were there to greet her.
Newspapers proclaimed "SKY GIRL SETS MARK--Flies for 17 Hours." A Chicago
Special EXTRA Night edition declared "GIRL SETS 5 NEW AIR RECORDS."
Bobbi accepted a Richfield offer of $1,000 and all the oil and gasoline she
would need on future flights for advertising Richfield on the side of her
record-breaking airplane.
The first recorded women's pylon race was featured at Glendale's Grand
Central Airport opening on February 22, 1929--two laps from the new Glendale
field to Metropolitan Airport in Van Nuys and return. Bobbi's 60-horsepower
Golden Eagle was no match for the larger competing airplanes. She placed
third.
Four months after her second endurance flight, Bobbi took off in the new 90-horsepower
Golden Eagle Chief to set a new altitude record for light-class
aircraft. She broke the record, reaching 15,200 feet. Bobbi and the Golden
Eagle Chief, lauded with parties and banquets, made the worldwide news.
Shortly after that record altitude flight, she met Louise Thaden, who had
just set a 156-mile per hour speed record in her Travel Air biplane. Louise
proposed a try for the first women's refueling endurance record. Bobbi's
employer R.O. Bone said "No, positively no." A couple of months later Bobbi
met Jack Sherill, who was looking for a promotional venture. The idea of
managing and promoting a women's refueling endurance flight appealed to him.
Bobbi accepted his offer with the provision that she waited until after the
first Women's Transcontinental Air Derby, scheduled for August 1929.
R.O. Bone, builder of the Golden Eagle high wing monoplanes, had promised that
she could fly his just-completed and licensed Golden Eagle Chief in the
Derby. She did not want to jeopardize the opportunity to fly the new Golden
Eagle Chief. When Bobbi went to the starting point of the race, Clover
Field in Santa Monica, to finalize her entry in the race, she saw her
friend Amelia Earhart. Bobbi was looking for another woman with whom to
make a refueling flight. Amelia was interested, but she was booked and
would be unable to join Bobbi in the refueling flight.
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