Bessie Owen, ca. 1937

Raise your hand if you have heard of Bessie Owen....  I thought so. 

Bessie Owen was the 38th of only 41 female pilots to sign the Davis-Monthan Airfield Register.  Owen’s pilot license is cited as number 30,013, not nearly as low as some of the denizens of the Davis-Monthan Register, including Clarence Young (#2), or sister pilots Phoebe Omlie (#199), Mildred Morgan (#326) or Joan Shankle (#417). She was a member of the The Ninety-Nines. Across several articles in 99s publications, she is cited as having eyesight problems.

Based in Santa Barbara, CA, she arrived at Tucson from Yuma, AZ at 9:45AM on April 23, 1935.  Her airplane was a Waco model UIC, S/N 3778, built on June 24, 1933 and registered NC13423.  She must have been in a hurry, as she departed eastbound to El Paso, TX fifteen minutes later.  She noted in the Remarks column of the Register “Swell field.”

Her airplane visited the Davis-Monthan Airfield twice.  The first time was on September 3, 1933 flown by H.C. Lippiatt.  Lippiatt was a Waco dealer on the west coast.  Soon after this visit, Lippiatt sold it to Earl C. Stewart of Santa Barbara, CA on October 4, 1933.  Owen became the second owner when Stewart sold it to her with 615 accumulated flight hours on February 18, 1935.

Later in the 1930s Bessie Owen flew this very Waco around the world.  It came from the factory with a Continental R-670 engine of 210 horsepower.  It was a four-place airplane.  When new it had a wooden propeller, 7.50 x 10.0 wheels and tires, a tail wheel, extra fuel tanks and leather upholstery.  She flew it that way on her global flight. 

Bessie Owen and Tony LeVier, Date Unknown

Less than a year after her Tucson landing, Owen requested authorization for a flight to the Far East, traveling with mechanic Fred B. Novinger.  She leveraged her trip to the Far East into a circumnavigation of the globe, with the oceans crossed by ship.  She wrote a book, right sidebar, documenting her adventures entitled “Aerial Vagabond” published in 1941.

At the outset of her voyage, the airplane was shipped to Belgium in January 1936.  On July 24, 1936 Owen advised the U.S. Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) that she had been touring Europe and Northern Africa with it.  She went on across Persia, India and China.  Top image of Owen taken in Hong Kong. Oddly, she does not mention mechanic Novinger in her book, nor are there any images of him.

The official record for NC13423 from the Smithsonian Institution, National Air & Space Museum, shows Owen sold the airplane to L.J. Coote (although I have elsewhere seen mention of the name Neilson as the new owner) of Manila, Philippines on January 26, 1937.  About a year later, the CAA received a radiogram from the Philippines requesting the history of the airplane.  The final disposition, as far as the CAA is concerned, was that the airplane was, “to be operated in the Philippine Islands”.  The U.S. license was cancelled on May 26, 1937.

At right, Owen confers with Tony LeVier. The exact date is unknown, but it is probably during the late 1930s when she was known to purchase the Beech Staggerwing she is sitting on. The image is from the NASM.

Below, Bessie Owen (2nd from left) flanked by the Chief of Police and the Greek Catholic Pope at Pernik before her departure to Sofia. This image faces page 102 of her book. Her Waco is in the background. A hungry dog is in the foreground.

Bessie Owen in Bulgaria, ca. 1936

Bessie Owen, March 1943

She was active in the Ninety-Nines, serving as Chair of the Los Angeles Chapter in 1940, and National Vice President in 1941.

During 1943-44, she taught navigation at Santa Barbara State College. Late in 1944, the 99’s received a letter from her stating that she is living in Mexico, no longer has an interest in aviation and that she was resigning from the organization. Apparently, her eyesight problem finally caught up with her.

I am not sure about these dates, but I believe she was born August 29, 1897 and died April 13, 1977.  She may have been married November 16, 1925.  Can anyone corroborate these dates?

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Dossier 2.4.4

UPLOADED: 07/19/07 REVISED: 02/26/08, 03/13/08