Bessie Coleman was the first woman of Native American descent (specifically part Cherokee) and the first black woman to hold a pilot’s license, which she earned in 1921. At the time, there were no opportunities for African Americans, Native Americans, or women to fly planes in the United States, nor teachers willing to teach them, so she traveled to France after saving enough money to study there.
Coleman was born to sharecropper parents in Texas in 1892 and died only five short years after earning her pilot’s license in 1926 when she crashed her plane while testing a new aircraft. Commercial flights did not begin in earnest until the late 1920s and early 1930s so pilots like Coleman—or “Queen Bess” as she was popularly known—often made their living as stunt pilots in air shows. Her demonstrations involved figure eights, loops, and dips that took her close to the ground.
In honor of Bessie Coleman and Black History Month, let’s take a look at what flying was like in the 1920s and '30s, as well as the basic theory behind why planes fly.
Basic Theory of Flight
Planes fly thanks to the principles of what is called heavier-than-air flight. (Lighter-than-air flight, like that of hot air balloons, works under different principles like buoyancy and density.) A very, very simplified picture of the heavier-than-air flight that keeps planes—and birds—soaring through the air is a perfect balance of four forces on the aircraft, namely lift, weight, thrust, and drag.
While the plane’s weight pulls it down to Earth, lift is a mechanical force that opposes this weight and can thus overcome gravity. Lift is generated by the motion of air over a surface which means every part of the plane can contribute to its lift, but most of the upward force is generated by the wings. The relationship between the speed of the air and the pressure differences the motion creates are part of the Bernoulli’s equation, named after the Swiss mathematician Daniel Bernoulli and a key contribution to our understanding of flight.
The drag force is the resistance the plane experiences against its forward motion. If a pilot mentions a strong headwind, your plan is experiencing a higher drag force at work to slow it down. Thrust works against drag to propel the plane forward. The thrust produced by the plane’s engine relies on thermodynamics and other physics to keep the plane moving forward.
Early Challenges in Flight
As early aviators and engineers learned how to create lift most efficiently, lightening the weight of an aircraft as much as possible was crucial. Early planes were first made from lightweight materials like wood and canvas like the spruce and ash muslin-covered frame that made up the Wright Brothers’ first plane. Unfortunately, these planes tended to be less durable. To strengthen planes against the elements and other stressors of flight, aircraft were eventually made of aluminum, as was the Ford Tri-Motor plane, one of the first passenger planes in 1928. Aluminum is lightweight, strong, and doesn’t corrode as easily as steel.
Another challenge to reducing the weight of an aircraft was the heaviness of its fuel. Charles Lindbergh made his historical 33.5-hour flight across the Atlantic—the first transcontinental nonstop airplane flight—solo because he opted to carry more fuel instead a navigator. Amelia Earhart is thought to have run out of gas while searching for a landing spot, causing her to crash into the open ocean, although confirmed wreckage from her plane Electra has yet to be found.
Early pilots had to navigate their flights without, of course, the help of a GPS. This made tracking precise locations along with changing weather conditions and wind patterns difficult, and mid-air collisions even occurred. In the US, the federal government did not become responsible for establishing airways and flight navigation (not to mention flight safety rules) until the Air Commerce Act was passed by Congress in 1926.
The federal government did not become responsible for establishing airways and flight navigation until the Air Commerce Act in 1926.
We often grumble today about the standard commercial flight experience with its lack of leg room, shoulder room, or tasty food. But flights today are luxurious compared to what passengers experienced in the 1920s and '30s. Early passenger flights had to navigate around mountains, could not fly at night and frequently had to land to refuel. One of the earliest commercial flight routes across the continental United States took 20-30 hours and it was often still faster to travel across the country by train. Passengers sometimes wore goggles and even helmets, along with ear plugs to drown out the deafening sound of the rattling, uninsulated metal that surrounded them. Before cabins were pressurized in the late 1930s, passengers also had to chew gum to keep their ears from popping.
The plane crash that ultimately took Coleman’s life was thought to be caused when a wrench left by the plane’s mechanic (and fellow pilot who also died in the crash) became stuck in the control gears. Coleman, who was not wearing a seatbelt, was thrown from the plane just before it crashed.
Audiences of all races admired Coleman for her skill as a pilot, but she served as a particularly important role model for the African and Native American communities. As noted by Lieutenant William J. Powell, another black pilot in the early era of aviation and founder of the Bessie Coleman Flying Club in Los Angeles, “Because of Bessie Coleman we have overcome that which was worse than racial barriers. We have overcome the barriers within ourselves and dared to dream.”
Until next time, this is Sabrina Stierwalt with Everyday Einstein’s Quick and Dirty Tips for helping you make sense of science. You can become a fan of Everyday Einstein on Facebook or follow me on Twitter, where I’m @QDTeinstein. If you have a question that you’d like to see on a future episode, send me an email at everydayeinstein@quickanddirtytips.com.
Image courtesy of shutterstock.
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