Mary Riddle

Riddle saved money for two years[8] to attend the Rankin Flying School in Portland, run by noted aviator Tex Rankin.[10] Rankin, who also taught Chinese-American pilot Leah Hing, was interested in creating "a 'rainbow', all-female stunt team," but Riddle declined to participate, and the idea fizzled out.[11] She flew solo for the first time on May 10, 1930.[8] "I wasn't scared," said Riddle one month later. "On that first trip alone I just missed the weight of the instructor in the plane."[8] She featured in an airshow at the 1930 Portland Rose Festival, riding up to her plane on horseback and in "full tribal costume".[12] Riddle was one of three female pilots in the show: the others were Dorothy Hester and Edith Foltz.[13] In August of that year, she made plans to fly to Washington, D.C., with "beaded gifts from Indian tribes of the Northwest", to be delivered to for "President Hoover and others".[14] Riddle earned a limited commercial pilot's license in 1933.[15] In June 1934, she was featured on the 99's magazine, The 99er.[16] An all-around athlete, she enjoyed swimming, riding, "golf, tennis, and ice skating."[17]

Riddle later went to the Spartan School in Tulsa to learn parachute jumping.[18] Though the school was all-male at the time, Riddle convinced them to admit her and graduated with honors.[18] By 1937 she was performing as a parachutist[19] while touring the United States on The Voice of Washington, advertised as the largest tri-motored plane in the world,[20] on which she also served as chief stewardess.[1] Press described her as quiet and charming.[17] Riddle did forty parachute jumps.[10] In 1937, she almost died when her parachute, which had not opened correctly, became tangled with her legs.[20] The next year, a back injury caused her to quit parachuting.[7]

World War II restrictions on civilian aircraft forced Riddle to give up flying.[7] She began working with aluminum sheet metal as part of the U.S. Air Force's Civil Service, reasoning, "I just had to be near airplanes- even if I could not fly them."[7] She was recruited by the government to inspect civilian aircraft and work as an aircraft maintenance advisor.[10] Riddle recalled, "I was a sort of guinea pig, really, on account of being the only woman, but I got along fine."[21]