Today in 1899, the birthday of Gladys Ingle, a member of a team known as the 13 Black Cats.
She was what people in those days called a “wing walker”; she used to walk on the wings of a plane in mid-flight to perform some of the most daring and death-defying stunts you could imagine.
Just the name 13 Black Cats gives you an idea of what the group was like; they literally flew in the face of danger.
Their slogan was “If a Black Cat can’t do it, it can’t be done.”
Gladys Ingle was performing like a Black Cat even before she joined.
She was born in Walla Walla, Washington in 1899; she grew up walking fences, standing on stilts and riding wild broncos and racing motorcycles.
Eventually Ingle and her sister Ann started jumping out of hot air balloons, before turning to the world of barnstorming.
In the air, she seemed to have no fear, and no stunt was too big.
Newspapers wrote about how Gladys Ingle could hang from a plane by her heels, or stand on her head while perched on the wing.
But her most famous stunt almost defies description as well as death.
There were two planes: one would go up and lose one of its tires in the air.
So Ingle would go up in the second plane, which would get close to the first.
She would walk from one plane to the other to replace the missing tire, with no safety harnesses and no parachutes.
Above, you can see the film of her pulling off the stunt.
Even knowing ahead of time that she succeeds, it’s terrifying, thrilling viewing.
By the way, she did this trick some 300 times before retiring, starting a family, and living to the ripe old age of 82.
Messy Nessy Chic just pointed me toward a significantly calmer story from flying history.
An enthusiast called Cliff Muskiet created an online collection of uniforms for stewardesses and flight attendants, grouped by airline and dating back to the early days of passenger flights.
And the unforgettable address of the site is UniformFreak.com!
Wing Walker Woman Climbs From One Plane to Another to Make a Mid-Air Tire Change in 1926 (Laughing Squid)
Cliff Muskiet’s Stewardess/Flight Attendant Uniform Collection
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Photo via Wikicommons