that as it may, she made her first official flight, at least, at the age of eight. In those days the Smith family lived near the old Curtiss Field on Long Island and Elinor’s father, who is an actor, found himself succumbing to the lure of flying. Elinor, then about ten, used to play around while her father took instruction. Various pilots were forever taking her up and letting her handle the controls in the air.
I believe she was fifteen when her father bought a plane, and it was hard for her to learn that she could not solo until she was eighteen. It appears that she couldn’t wait, for she arranged for some lessons with a little money of her own. Every morning she arose at five and sneaked away for her instruction, returning home to be “waked” for school. By the time her parents discovered what she was up to, she really felt herself a pretty good pilot.
Elinor Smith commenced making her mark in flying when she was only eighteen. In October, 1928, she attracted plenty of attention—and trouble for herself—by flying under all the East River bridges one Sunday afternoon. This prank caused the Department of Commerce to suspend her license temporarily. Three months later, she went up after the solo endurance record for women held by Bobby Trout. It was the end of January and for thirteen hours in an open cockpit plane she circled the Long Island flying fields. Then, the story goes, she saw lights flashing from
