Ruth Law: Record Setting Early Aviator
Nov 02, 2021
By Dorothy Cochrane and P. Ramirez
Ruth Law enjoyed one of the longest and most colorful careers of early aviators. She was so successful that, in 1917, she earned as much as $9,000 a week for exhibition flights. Law enrolled in the Burgess Flying School in June 1912, making her first flight on July 5 of that year, and soloing on August 12. Here are four things you’ll want to know about her colorful career.
She bought her first aircraft from Orville Wright.
Technically, her husband purchased the aircraft from Wright, but Law was the true owner. Wright refused to teach Law because he didn’t believe women were mechanically minded.
She set records and firsts—including being the first known woman to fly at night.
This photograph captures one of Law’s nighttime performances where she looped with flares attached to her aircraft. (National Air and Space Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution, NASM.XXXX.0424-M0000044-00020)
Her record setting didn’t stop there. In 1916, Law set three records on a flight from Chicago to New York, and she had the honor of carrying the first official air mail to the Philippine Islands in 1919.
In 1917, she was the first woman authorized to wear an Army aviation uniform, but she was denied permission to fly in combat.
Instead, she raised money for the Red Cross and Liberty Loan drives with exhibition flights. As Kathleen Hanser explains, “On her Liberty Loan promotional flights, Law dropped “bombshell” leaflets like the one below, which is in our Archives. Made to look like a smoking bomb, on one side it reads, “You buy a liberty bond or the next bomb dropped on you may be a German bomb. I’ve bought my liberty bond, will you buy yours today? Ruth Law.” On the other side is a photo of Law in her uniform, with words around the edge that say, “I have volunteered to do my bit above the trenches, will you do your bit with your money?””
After the war, she formed "Ruth Law's Flying Circus.”
The circus was a three-plane troupe that amazed spectators at state and county fairs by racing against cars, flying through fireworks, and setting altitude and distance records.
So how does Ruth Law’s flying story end? One morning in 1922, Law read the announcement of her retirement in the newspaper — her husband, Charles Oliver, could no longer bear his wife's hazardous occupation and simply put an end to her flying career without her consent.
Explore Ruth Law's Scrapbook
This content was migrated from an earlier online exhibit, Women in Aviation and Space History, which shared the stories of the women featured in the Museum in the early 2000s.
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