Page:The Fun of It.pdf/192

158 five years ago, there had been only one category for aeronautical attainments. No one could have fore­seen what limits of speed or endurance or altitude airplanes would reach. In 1905 there were so few pilots, that classifying them would have been a joke, During the war, however, the number of pilots and airplanes increased tremendously and records thought impossible once, began to be made. But women didn’t really become very active until 1929, as I have described previously. Certainly they had not progressed to the point where they figured in any of the records made. They had neither the experience nor the equipment to attain world rec­ognition in any of the classifications. Conse­quently, any efforts they made were labeled unoffi­cial despite the fact they were as carefully judged and tabulated as were those which men were con­tinuously writing in the annals of the F. A. I.

“Why,” asked Mr. General Public, “is Mary Smith’s altitude record of umpty-ump thousand feet not official? That’s higher than any other woman has flown, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” was the answer, “but it isn’t higher than men have gone. As there are not separate records for women, the only ones which are official must ex­ceed theirs.”

After earnest requests from various women fliers separate classifications were set up. Thus, they can fly as high and as fast and as far as they are able, and if they exceed what other women have done, they may earn official recognition. If they exceed