The article also mentions Stinson Municipal airport. This airport has a fascinating history.
Historical data points (see link) regarding Stinson Municipal Airport on south side of San Antonio, or rather the founder of the airport:
- Katherine Stinson, born 12 years before Wright brothers made historic first flight
- wanted to become a piano teacher; needed money to study in Europe
- took up stunt flying to earn money
- learned to fly in four hours
- learned stunt flying under Max Lillie of Chicago
- fourth American woman to earn a pilot's license (1912)
- ;gave up plans to teach music; barnstormed across the country
- mother and Katherine found Stinson Aviation Company in Hot Springs, Arkansas, 1913
- move to San Antonio, 1913
- US Army allowed her to turn Ft Sam Houston parade grounds into flying field
- established Stinson School of Flying
- first woman and fourth pilot in US to perform the particularly dangerous loop-the-loop; in a plane she built herself
- first person (of either sex) to fly an airplane at night
- 1915: first person to skywrite at night: spelled out "CAL" over Los Angeles
- 1916: Amelia Earhart graduated from her flying school
- first woman to fly in the Orient; "Air Queen" fan clubs throughout Asia
- China leaders were granted a private exhibition
- 1917: set long-distance record of 610 miles, flying alone from San Diego to San Francisco
- first woman pilot to be commissioned as a US Post Office mail pilot
- broke her own flying record while carrying airmail: 783-mile flight from Chicago to near NYC
- applied to fly for US Army in WWI; rejected because she was a woman
- volunteered as an ambulance driver instead for WWI; contracted tuberculosis during the war
- sought tuberculosis cure in Santa Fe, New Mexico, upon return; required less active live
- designed apartments in Santa Fe; influenced by Pueblo Indians and Spanish missions
- one of "my heroes"
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